Lincoln, NE – Leading national ballot measure organization the Fairness Project celebrated today as organizers got one step closer to winning fair access to housing in Nebraska’s capital city this year. 

With funding and strategic partnership from the Fairness Project, organizers with Nebraska Appleseed and Lincoln for Fair Housing turned in more than 15,000 signatures from Lincoln residents to place a new measure on the May 2025 ballot, which would end housing discrimination based on tenants’ source of income.

The Fairness Project said today that it’s making the Lincoln housing measure the group’s first big fight of 2025, after securing 9 ballot measure victories in the 2024 election cycle and becoming the largest funder of abortion rights ballot campaigns nationwide. 

“We have an incredible opportunity to use the power of direct democracy to tackle housing discrimination in Lincoln,” said Kelly Hall, Executive Director of The Fairness Project. “There is real excitement and momentum for this ballot measure, and we’re committed to helping the campaign win essential protections for the people of Lincoln this session.” 

Right now, Lincoln landlords can legally discriminate against prospective tenants based on their source of income, leading those who rely on housing vouchers, disability benefits, veteran benefits, social security, or even child support payments to be denied housing. The practice is so rampant that over the last decade, nearly 30% of the city’s Section 8 housing vouchers expired each year before the person was able to find housing.

If passed, this ballot initiative will make such discrimination illegal by adopting source of income protections. 22 states and 128 cities across the country have already implemented such protections, which have proven incredibly effective by cutting Section 8 voucher failure rates in half.

“Lincoln residents who have been pushing for this change for years will now have the chance to eliminate the unjust housing discrimination happening across their city – without waiting around for the elected officials who’ve ignored their pleas up to now,”  Hall explained.

The Fairness Project won an astounding 9 of 11 ballot measure campaigns on reproductive freedom and economic justice in the 2024 election cycle. The group now has an unmatched number of victories on progressive ballot measure campaigns across the country, having won a total of 39 campaigns across 20 states since 2016. 

In Nebraska alone, the Fairness Project has a proven history of bringing ballot measures to the table. In 2022, they successfully helped pass Raise the Wage Nebraska to increase the statewide minimum wage from $9 to $15 an hour over four years. In 2024, they partnered with citizen-led group Protect Our Rights to garner record voter turnout for Initiative 429, which would have ended the state’s abortion ban and prevented government interference in reproductive choices, and helped pass Initiative 436, guaranteeing that Nebraska workers can earn 5-7 days per year of paid sick time for themselves and their children. 

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