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1. Justice.gov
2. Civil Liberty Division
3. The Fair Housing Act

The Fair Housing Act

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The Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq., forbids discrimination by direct companies of housing, such as landlords and property business as well as other entities, such as towns, banks or other financing institutions and homeowners insurance coverage companies whose discriminatory practices make housing unavailable to individuals because of:

race or color.
religious beliefs.
sex.
nationwide origin.
familial status, or.
disability.

In cases involving discrimination in mortgage loans or home enhancement loans, the Department might file match under both the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. The Department brings cases where there is proof of a pattern or practice of discrimination or where a denial of rights to a group of individuals raises a problem of basic public value. Where force or danger of force is used to reject or disrupt reasonable housing rights, the Department of Justice may set up criminal procedures. The Fair Housing Act likewise supplies treatments for managing specific grievances of discrimination. Individuals who think that they have been victims of an unlawful housing practice, may file a grievance with the Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] or submit their own suit in federal or state court. The Department of Justice brings fits on behalf of people based upon recommendations from HUD.

Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Race or Color

One of the main goals of the Fair Housing Act, when Congress enacted it in 1968, was to restrict race discrimination in sales and leasings of housing. Nevertheless, more than thirty years later on, race discrimination in housing continues to be a problem. The bulk of the Justice Department's pattern or practice cases involve claims of race discrimination. Sometimes, housing suppliers try to disguise their discrimination by providing false details about schedule of housing, either stating that nothing was readily available or steering homeseekers to particular locations based on race. Individuals who receive such incorrect details or misdirection might have no understanding that they have been victims of discrimination. The Department of Justice has brought numerous cases alleging this kind of discrimination based on race or color. In addition, the Department's Fair Housing Testing Program seeks to discover this sort of covert discrimination and hold those responsible liable. The majority of the mortgage financing cases brought by the Department under the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act have alleged discrimination based on race or color. A few of the Department's cases have actually also alleged that towns and other regional government entities broke the Fair Housing Act when they rejected licenses or zoning modifications for housing developments, or relegated them to primarily minority areas, due to the fact that the prospective locals were anticipated to be predominantly African-Americans.

Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Religion

The Fair Housing Act forbids discrimination in housing based upon religious beliefs. This restriction covers instances of obvious discrimination against members of a specific faith also less direct actions, such as zoning regulations developed to restrict using private homes as a places of worship. The number of cases submitted given that 1968 alleging spiritual discrimination is small in contrast to a few of the other forbidden bases, such as race or nationwide origin. The Act does contain a minimal exception that allows non-commercial housing operated by a religious organization to reserve such housing to individuals of the very same religion.

Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Sex, Including Sexual Harassment

The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to discriminate in housing on the basis of sex. Recently, the Department's focus in this area has been to challenge sexual harassment in housing. Women, especially those who are bad, and with limited housing options, often have little recourse however to endure the humiliation and degradation of unwanted sexual advances or risk having their families and themselves eliminated from their homes. The Department's enforcement program is intended at proprietors who develop an illogical living environment by requiring sexual favors from tenants or by producing a sexually hostile environment for them. In this manner we seek both to acquire relief for tenants who have been treated unjustly by a property manager since of sex and also hinder other potential abusers by making it clear that they can not continue their conduct without dealing with consequences. In addition, rates discrimination in mortgage lending may likewise adversely impact females, especially minority women. This kind of discrimination is unlawful under both the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

Discrimination in Housing Based Upon National Origin

The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination based upon national origin. Such discrimination can be based either upon the country of an individual's birth or where his or her ancestors stem. Census information show that the Hispanic population is the fastest growing sector of our country's population. The Justice Department has actually taken enforcement action versus local federal governments that have tried to reduce or restrict the number of Hispanic households that may live in their neighborhoods. We have actually taken legal action against lending institutions under both the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act when they have actually imposed more rigid underwriting standards on mortgage or made loans on less beneficial terms for Hispanic customers. The Department has actually likewise sued lenders for discrimination versus Native Americans. Other locations of the country have experienced an increasing variety of national origin groups within their populations. This consists of brand-new immigrants from Southeastern Asia, such as the Hmong, the former Soviet Union, and other parts of Eastern Europe. We have done something about it against private property managers who have victimized such people.

Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Familial Status

The Fair Housing Act, with some exceptions, forbids discrimination in housing against families with kids under 18. In addition to restricting an outright denial of housing to households with kids, the Act also prevents housing service providers from imposing any unique requirements or conditions on tenants with custody of children. For example, landlords might not find families with children in any single portion of a complex, position an unreasonable constraint on the total variety of individuals who might reside in a house, or limit their access to leisure services supplied to other occupants. In most circumstances, the changed Fair Housing Act forbids a housing supplier from refusing to rent or sell to households with children. However, some centers might be designated as Housing for Older Persons (55 years of age). This type of housing, which meets the standards stated in the Housing for Older Persons Act of 1995, may operate as "senior" housing. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has published regulations and extra guidance detailing these statutory requirements.

Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Disability

The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of impairment in all types of housing deals. The Act defines persons with a special needs to suggest those individuals with mental or physical impairments that considerably limit one or more significant life activities. The term mental or physical problems may consist of conditions such as blindness, hearing impairment, movement impairment, HIV infection, mental retardation, alcohol addiction, drug addiction, chronic tiredness, finding out impairment, head injury, and mental disorder. The term major life activity may include seeing, hearing, walking, breathing, carrying out manual tasks, caring for one's self, discovering, speaking, or working. The Fair Housing Act also protects persons who have a record of such a disability, or are considered having such a problems. Current users of unlawful regulated compounds, individuals convicted for prohibited manufacture or distribution of a regulated compound, sex wrongdoers, and juvenile wrongdoers are ruled out handicapped under the Fair Housing Act, by virtue of that status. The Fair Housing Act affords no securities to people with or without impairments who present a direct risk to the individuals or residential or commercial property of others. Determining whether someone presents such a direct risk must be made on a customized basis, nevertheless, and can not be based upon basic assumptions or speculation about the nature of a special needs. The Division's enforcement of the Fair Housing Act's securities for individuals with specials needs has focused on 2 significant locations. One is insuring that zoning and other policies concerning land use are not employed to hinder the domestic choices of these people, including needlessly limiting common, or congregate, property arrangements, such as group homes. The second location is guaranteeing that newly constructed multifamily housing is integrated in accordance with the Fair Housing Act's ease of access requirements so that it is accessible to and usable by people with impairments, and, in specific, those who use wheelchairs. There are other federal statutes that forbid discrimination versus individuals with disabilities, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is imposed by the Disability Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division.

Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Disability Group Homes

Some people with disabilities might live together in congregate living plans, frequently referred to as "group homes." The Fair Housing Act prohibits towns and other local federal government entities from making zoning or land use decisions or executing land use policies that exclude or otherwise discriminate against individuals with disabilities. The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal--

- To make use of land use policies or actions that treat groups of individuals with specials needs less favorably than groups of non-disabled individuals. An example would be an ordinance prohibiting housing for individuals with disabilities or a specific type of disability, such as mental disorder, from locating in a particular location, while allowing other groups of unassociated individuals to cohabit in that location.
- To take action against, or reject a license, for a home due to the fact that of the impairment of people who live or would live there. An example would be rejecting a building license for a home due to the fact that it was meant to supply housing for persons with mental retardation.
- To refuse to make sensible lodgings in land usage and zoning policies and treatments where such lodgings may be essential to manage persons or groups of persons with disabilities an equal chance to utilize and delight in housing. What makes up an affordable accommodation is a case-by-case determination. Not all requested adjustments of guidelines or policies are sensible. If an asked for modification imposes an undue monetary or administrative burden on a city government, or if a modification produces a fundamental alteration in a regional federal government's land use and zoning plan, it is not a "reasonable" lodging.

Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Disability-- Accessibility Features for New Construction

The Fair Housing Act specifies discrimination in housing against individuals with specials needs to consist of a failure "to design and build" specific brand-new multi-family dwellings so that they are accessible to and usable by individuals with impairments, and particularly individuals who use wheelchairs. The Act needs all freshly built multi-family dwellings of 4 or more units meant for first occupancy after March 13, 1991, to have particular functions: an accessible entrance on an accessible path, accessible typical and public use areas, doors sufficiently wide to accommodate wheelchairs, available paths into and through each house, light switches, electrical outlets, and thermostats in available location, reinforcements in bathroom walls to accommodate grab bar setups, and usable bathroom and kitchens configured so that a wheelchair can maneuver about the space.

Developers, home builders, owners, and designers responsible for the style or construction of new multi-family housing may be held accountable under the Fair Housing Act if their buildings fail to fulfill these design requirements. The Department of Justice has brought many enforcement actions against those who stopped working to do so. Most of the cases have been fixed by permission decrees offering a range of kinds of relief, including: retrofitting to bring unattainable features into compliance where practical and where it is not-- options (monetary funds or other building and construction requirements) that will offer making other housing units accessible; training on the ease of access requirements for those associated with the construction procedure; a mandate that all new housing projects adhere to the accessibility requirements, and monetary relief for those injured by the offenses. In addition, the Department has actually looked for to promote accessibility through building codes.