A summary on a housing provider’s obligation to make reasonable accommodations and modifications which may be necessary to afford a person with a disability the equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling.

•  A Guide to Reasonable Accommodation and Reasonable Modification requests 
• HUD/DOJ Statement: Reasonable Accommodations under the Fair Housing Act 
• Service Animals
  • Right to Emotional Support Animals in "No Pet" Housing
  • Assistance Animals In Housing – New HUD Guidance Regarding Assistance Animals
  • ILAS Assistance Animals Brochure 
• Summary of Shadow Canyon case

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a press release on February 11, 2021 that they will begin enforcing the Fair Housing Act to include protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. 

HUD will also begin to review all claims of discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation received since Jan. 20, 2020.

To read HUD's press release for more information, please click here: HUD Press Release on the Fair Housing Act and Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination.

Persons who believe they have experienced housing discrimination may file a complaint by contacting HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at (800) 669-9777 (voice) or (800) 877-8339 (TTY/Relay). Housing discrimination complaints may also be submitted online at hud.gov/fairhousing.

What is the Fair Housing Act?

The Fair Housing Act is a part of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. The Fair Housing Act protects people from discrimination when they are renting or buying a home, getting a mortgage, seeking housing assistance, or engaging in other housing-related activities. 

Additional protections may be found in federally-assisted housing.

Federal laws prohibit discrimination in housing and community development programs and activities. The FHA also requires that all federal programs relating to housing and urban development be administered in a manner that affirmatively furthers fair housing.

What Is Discrimination under the Fair Housing Act?

The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing because of:

• Race
• Color
• National Origin
• Religion
• Sex
  
  • Including gender identity, sexual orientation, and sex discrimination
• Familial Status
  
  • Discrimination against a family with one or more individuals who are under 18 years of age.
    
    • Exception: housing for older persons – certain senior housing facilities and communities
• Disability
  
  • Includes both physical and mental impairments
  • Includes reasonable accommodation and modification requests
    
    • Including support animal requests

What Types of Acts are Discriminatory under the Fair Housing Act in the Home Buying and Selling Process?

The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to discriminate against someone because of race, color, religion, sex (including gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and sexual harassment), familial status, national origin or disability at any stage of the home buying and selling process, including:

• Mortgage approvals and denials
• Mortgage Terms, e.g. interest rates, points, fees and other costs
• Advertising
• Mortgage broker services
• Property appraisals
• Servicing
• Home loan modification assistance
• Homeowners insurance

The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in loans that are secured by residential real estate or that are for the purchasing, constructing, improving, repairing or maintaining a dwelling. This includes mortgages, refinancing, home equity loans and home improvement loans.

Some examples of discriminatory acts in the home buying and selling process may include:

• Refusal to make a mortgage loan or provide other financial assistance for a dwelling
• Example: refusing to provide a mortgage to a person on parental leave
• Example: refusing to consider an applicant’s disability-related income, such as SSI or SSDI
• Refusal to provide information regarding loans
• Imposing different terms or conditions on a loan, such as different interest rates, points, or fees
• Discriminating in appraising a dwelling
• Conditioning the availability of a loan on a person’s response to harassment
• Refusing to purchase a loan

Under the Fair Housing Act, these acts are discriminatory if they are based on someone’s race, color, national origin, disability, sex, religion, or familial status.

What Is an Appraisal?

An appraisal is a point-in-time opinion of value.

In order to issue a home loan, the lender (typically a bank) must conduct an appraisal to determine the value of the home they will finance under a home mortgage loan (for a purchase or refinance transaction).

The appraiser’s scope of work typically includes:

    -the type of property inspection (interior, exterior only, or no    inspection);

    -what approaches to value are required (sales comparison, cost, or income); and

    -any lender-specific requirements.

What Are Examples of Appraisal Bias?

Language in an appraisal that indicates bias

Examples:

• Noting that a nearby shopping plaza featured “storefronts supplying Jewish Households."
• Referring to an area with a growing immigrant population as “one spicy neighborhood.”
• Including that an area was “originally founded as a whites-only city or sundown town” but had become “fairly diverse” with a “diverse school system.”

Appraisal estimates that are significantly different in value

Example: An African-American family received an appraisal of their home that they believed was low and then removed all evidence of their African-American culture, including pictures and art, and had their white friend greet the appraiser and received a much higher appraisal value.

Fair Housing Act Video on the Home Buying and Selling Process

Idaho Legal Aid Services, Inc. has created a video on fair housing discrimination in the home buying and selling process under the federal Fair Housing Act. Check out our video on our Youtube page here: 

English: https://youtu.be/BrFWkPIDzOQ

Spanish/Espanol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjpNI96Z55k

This brochure provides an overview of housing discrimination based upon familial status and is available in multiple languages below. 

The Fair Housing Act prohibits efforts to coerce, intimidate, threaten, or interfere with any person’s fair housing rights. See 42 United States code 3617. This includes harassment and retaliation against a person exercising their fair housing rights.

Harassment

Harassment may include discriminatory acts based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, and familial status. Examples of harassment that violate the Fair Housing Act include:

• A tenant repeatedly yelling anti-Muslim slurs at a Muslim tenant;
• Taunting, threatening, or making fun of a neighbor with a cognitive or mental disability;
• A maintenance employee making anti-LGBTQ comments to a bisexual tenant;
• A tenant telling an Asian tenant to “go home” and “stop spreading China flu”;
• Placing multiple anti-Semitic flyers around the home of a Jewish family; or
• Other tenants yelling racial slurs at their Black neighbor.

These examples are merely representative – harassment can take many forms.

Retaliation

Retaliation may include any adverse (negative) action taken against a person who tries to enforce their fair housing rights. For example, when a tenant reports a discriminatory practice or action to a housing provider, this complaint cannot lead to retaliation because the tenant has a right to try to enforce their fair housing rights. Even if the tenant’s complaint is unfounded or without basis, a retaliatory action based on that complaint is a violation of the Fair Housing Act.

Examples of retaliation that violate the Fair Housing Act include:

• A tenant that coerces or threatens a housing provider to deny housing to a Hispanic applicant based on his national origin;
• A housing provider that threatens to evict a tenant who requests a reasonable accommodation related to their disability, such as a service animal;
• A housing provider that refuses to renew a tenant’s lease because they filed a HUD Complaint against the housing provider;
• A housing provider that raises a tenant’s rent after that tenant shared Fair Housing Act information with other tenants; or
• A housing provider that offers a female tenant free rent in exchange for sexual acts.

These examples are merely representative – retaliation can take many forms.

HUD Complaint

If you believe you have been the victim of harassment or retaliation in violation of the Fair Housing Act, you can file a HUD Complaint by calling: 1-800-669-9777 (TTY: 1-800-877-8339) https://www.hud.gov/fairhousing/fileacomplaint%20.

It is illegal to retaliate against any person for making a complaint, testifying, assisting, or participating in any manner in a proceeding under HUD’s complaint process at any time, even after the investigation has been completed.

Hate Crime Reporting

The FBI makes preventing hate crimes a top priority. If you believe you have been the victim of a hate crime, you can file a report with the FBI by calling: 1-800-CALL-FBI or submitting a tip at tips.fbi.gov.

Idaho Legal Aid Services' Harassment and Retaliation Brochures

For more information on these issues, please view our Harassment and Retaliation Brochures here: https://www.idaholegalaid.org/node/2809/harassment-and-retaliation-brochure-english-and-spanish-espanol. For an audio recording of our Harassment and Retaliation video in English, please click here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgTUhrRka78.

Idaho Legal Aid Services' Harassment and Retaliation Video

Please view the video on Harassment and Retaliation to learn about your rights under the Fair Housing Act: 

English Version with Subtitles Available in Multiple Languages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN_lWSOYIZ8.

Spanish version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1ms7TaKb4E.

The following activities may indicate discrimination.  You can follow up by requesting a written explanation from the housing provider or by contacting an agency, such as the Intermountain Fair Housing Council, who can do testing to see if discrimination is occurring. 

• Misrepresenting the availability of housing (e.g., telling you a property is not available when there is still a for rent/for sale sign up, still an ad listing the property, or other indications it is available).
• Steering you to certain buildings or properties based on your belonging to a protected class (e.g.,” we like to have the families in this building close to the playground”, or “that neighborhood isn’t a good fit for you”)
• Telling you they have no properties available for you
• Rules about adults sharing bedrooms or regarding male and female children sharing a bedroom
• Landlord claims it is not a safe place for children to live
• Landlord refuses to accept a support animal or requires a pet deposit for support animals
• Landlord denies your reasonable accommodation or reasonable modification request
• Realtor requires you to be pre-qualified before they will show you properties but they don’t require this of everyone
• Lender requires additional proof of income or co-signors because you belong to a protected class (e.g., national origin or disability)
• Cannot purchase in a community because of having children or because of your special needs due to a disability.
• Lending agent treats you badly, won’t return your calls, discourages you and you believe the treatment is based on your belonging to a protected class
• Mortgage company has a policy that eliminates your home from qualifying for a loan (e.g., “We don’t give loans under $50,000”)

Do you know what a place of public accommodation is? Did you know that places of public accommodation must be accessible to persons with disabilities?

To learn more, please view our Public Accommodations Guide, which covers state and federal protections for persons with disabilities in places of public accommodation.

This brochure offers an overview of housing discrimination based on race, color, or national origin and is translated into multiple languages below.

Attached is a brochure on fair housing laws and issues related to sex discrimination. This brochure is available in English, Spanish, Swahili, Arabic, and Farsi.