Nearly two out of three people who try to rent apartments in the District using federal housing vouchers meet significant resistance from landlords or get turned down flat, according to a report released today by an advocacy group.

Refusing to accept the Housing Choice Vouchers, which in the District go to households with annual incomes that average about $11,000, violates city law. Advocates for the poor said the rejections are discrimination and add another layer of difficulty for low-income people who are struggling to find an affordable apartment in the city's pricey housing market. They alleged that landlords bypass such applicants because they prefer to fill their buildings with higher-earning tenants.

"It's demoralizing. It's humiliating. It's dehumanizing," said Rabbi Bruce Kahn, executive director of the Equal Rights Center, the Washington civil rights group that is releasing the study. "Discrimination isn't healthy for any community.... There is an extra dimension of severity to it in the nation's capital."