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  1. Justice.gov
• Civil Liberty Division
• The Fair Housing Act
  
  The Fair Housing Act
  
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  The Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq., prohibits discrimination by direct providers of housing, such as landlords and realty companies in addition to other entities, such as municipalities, banks or other loan provider and property owners insurance provider whose discriminatory practices make housing not available to individuals due to the fact that of:
  
  race or color. faith. sex. nationwide origin. familial status, or. special needs.
  
  In cases including discrimination in mortgage loans or home enhancement loans, the Department may submit fit under both the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. The Department brings cases where there is evidence of a pattern or practice of discrimination or where a denial of rights to a group of individuals raises a problem of public significance. Where force or threat of force is utilized to reject or interfere with reasonable housing rights, the Department of Justice might institute criminal procedures. The Fair Housing Act likewise offers treatments for dealing with private problems of discrimination. Individuals who think that they have been victims of an unlawful housing practice, might submit a problem with the Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] or submit their own lawsuit in federal or state court. The Department of Justice brings matches on behalf of individuals based on referrals 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 30 years later, race discrimination in housing continues to be a problem. The majority of the Justice Department's pattern or practice cases involve claims of race discrimination. Sometimes, housing providers attempt to camouflage their discrimination by giving incorrect details about accessibility of housing, either stating that nothing was offered or guiding homeseekers to specific locations based upon race. Individuals who get such false details or misdirection might have no understanding that they have been victims of discrimination. The Department of Justice has brought many cases declaring this sort of discrimination based on race or color. In addition, the Department's Fair Housing Testing Program seeks to discover this sort of surprise discrimination and hold those responsible accountable. The majority of the mortgage financing cases brought by the Department under the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act have declared discrimination based upon race or color. Some of the Department's cases have likewise declared that municipalities and other city government entities breached the Fair Housing Act when they denied permits or zoning modifications for housing developments, or relegated them to mainly minority neighborhoods, due to the fact that the prospective residents were expected to be primarily African-Americans.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Religion
  
  The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing based upon religious beliefs. This prohibition covers circumstances of obvious discrimination against members of a specific faith as well less direct actions, such as zoning ordinances designed to restrict making use of personal homes as a locations of worship. The number of cases filed because 1968 alleging religious discrimination is little in contrast to a few of the other prohibited bases, such as race or national origin. The Act does contain a limited exception that enables non-commercial housing operated by a religious organization to reserve such housing to individuals of the exact same religious beliefs.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Sex, Including Unwanted Sexual Advances
  
  The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to discriminate in housing on the basis of sex. In recent years, the Department's focus in this location has been to challenge sexual harassment in housing. Women, especially those who are bad, and with minimal housing choices, frequently have little option however to endure the humiliation and degradation of unwanted sexual advances or danger having their households and themselves eliminated from their homes. The Department's enforcement program is targeted at property managers who produce an untenable living environment by requiring sexual favors from occupants or by creating a sexually hostile environment for them. In this way we seek both to get relief for renters who have been dealt with unjustly by a landlord because of sex and likewise discourage other potential abusers by making it clear that they can not continue their conduct without dealing with repercussions. In addition, pricing discrimination in mortgage financing might also negatively affect females, especially minority females. This type of discrimination is illegal under both the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon National Origin
  
  The Fair Housing Act restricts discrimination based upon national origin. Such discrimination can be based either upon the country of a person's birth or where his/her forefathers stem. Census information indicate that the Hispanic population is the fastest growing sector of our country's population. The Justice Department has actually taken enforcement action against local governments that have attempted to minimize or restrict the number of Hispanic households that may live in their communities. We have actually sued lenders under both the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act when they have imposed more stringent underwriting standards on mortgage or made loans on less beneficial terms for Hispanic borrowers. The Department has likewise taken legal action against lending institutions for discrimination against Native Americans. Other locations of the nation have experienced an increasing variety of nationwide origin groups within their populations. This includes new immigrants from Southeastern Asia, such as the Hmong, the previous Soviet Union, and other parts of Eastern Europe. We have acted against private proprietors who have victimized such people.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Familial Status
  
  The Fair Housing Act, with some exceptions, forbids discrimination in housing against households with children under 18. In addition to restricting an outright rejection of housing to families with children, the Act also prevents housing companies from imposing any unique requirements or conditions on tenants with custody of children. For example, property managers might not find families with kids in any single part of a complex, position an unreasonable limitation on the total number of individuals who might live in a home, or restrict their access to leisure services supplied to other occupants. In most circumstances, the modified Fair Housing Act restricts a housing company from refusing to rent or sell to families with kids. However, some facilities might be designated as Housing for Older Persons (55 years of age). This kind 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 released policies and extra assistance detailing these statutory requirements.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Disability
  
  The Fair Housing Act restricts discrimination on the basis of impairment in all kinds of housing deals. The Act specifies persons with a special needs to indicate those individuals with psychological or physical problems that considerably limit several major life activities. The term mental or physical disability may consist of conditions such as blindness, hearing disability, mobility impairment, HIV infection, psychological retardation, alcoholism, drug dependency, persistent tiredness, discovering impairment, head injury, and mental disorder. The term major life activity might include seeing, hearing, strolling, breathing, carrying out manual jobs, taking care of one's self, learning, speaking, or working. The Fair Housing Act also protects persons who have a record of such a disability, or are considered having such a disability. Current users of prohibited regulated compounds, individuals convicted for illegal manufacture or distribution of an illegal drug, sex offenders, and juvenile transgressors are ruled out handicapped under the Fair Housing Act, by virtue of that status. The Fair Housing Act affords no defenses to individuals with or without specials needs who present a direct danger to the individuals or residential or commercial property of others. Determining whether somebody presents such a direct hazard needs to be made on a personalized basis, nevertheless, and can not be based on general assumptions or speculation about the nature of a special needs. The Division's enforcement of the Fair Housing Act's defenses for individuals with specials needs has focused on two significant locations. One is guaranteeing that zoning and other guidelines concerning land usage are not utilized to prevent the residential options of these individuals, consisting of unnecessarily restricting communal, or gather together, residential arrangements, such as group homes. The second location is guaranteeing that recently built multifamily housing is constructed in accordance with the Fair Housing Act's availability requirements so that it is available to and functional by individuals with specials needs, and, in particular, those who use wheelchairs. There are other federal statutes that restrict discrimination against people with specials needs, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is implemented by the Disability Rights Section of the Civil Liberty Division.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Disability Group Homes
  
  Some people with specials needs might cohabit in congregate living arrangements, often referred to as "group homes." The Fair Housing Act prohibits municipalities and other regional federal government entities from making zoning or land usage choices or implementing land usage policies that exclude or otherwise victimize people with specials needs. The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal--
  
  - To utilize land use policies or actions that treat groups of individuals with specials needs less favorably than groups of non-disabled persons. An example would be a regulation forbiding housing for persons with disabilities or a particular kind of disability, such as mental disorder, from finding in a specific location, while allowing other groups of unassociated individuals to live together in that area.
• To act versus, or deny a license, for a home due to the fact that of the special needs of people who live or would live there. An example would be denying a structure authorization for a home because it was intended to provide housing for individuals with mental retardation.
• To refuse to make sensible accommodations in land use and zoning policies and treatments where such accommodations may be necessary to pay for individuals or groups of persons with specials needs a level playing field to use and enjoy housing. What makes up a reasonable lodging is a case-by-case determination. Not all requested adjustments of guidelines or policies are affordable. If an asked for adjustment imposes an undue monetary or administrative concern on a city government, or if an adjustment produces a basic alteration in a regional federal government's land use and zoning plan, it is not a "sensible" accommodation.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Disability-- Accessibility Features for New Construction
  
  The Fair Housing Act defines discrimination in housing against individuals with specials needs to include a failure "to develop and construct" particular new multi-family houses so that they are accessible to and functional by individuals with impairments, and particularly individuals who use wheelchairs. The Act requires all recently constructed multi-family houses of four or more systems meant for first tenancy after March 13, 1991, to have certain functions: an accessible entryway on an accessible route, accessible common and public use locations, doors sufficiently large to accommodate wheelchairs, accessible paths into and through each dwelling, light switches, electrical outlets, and thermostats in accessible area, reinforcements in bathroom walls to accommodate grab bar installations, and functional bathroom and kitchens set up so that a wheelchair can navigate about the space.
  
  Developers, contractors, owners, and designers accountable for the style or building and construction of brand-new multi-family housing might be held accountable under the Fair Housing Act if their structures fail to meet these style requirements. The Department of Justice has brought lots of enforcement actions against those who stopped working to do so. The majority of the cases have been fixed by consent decrees providing a variety of types of relief, consisting of: retrofitting to bring inaccessible functions into compliance where feasible and where it is not-- options (monetary funds or other building and construction requirements) that will offer making other housing systems available