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  1. Justice.gov
• Civil Rights Division
• The Fair Housing Act
  
  The Fair Housing Act
  
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  The Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq., restricts discrimination by direct suppliers of housing, such as property managers and property companies as well as other entities, such as municipalities, banks or other loan provider and house owners insurance coverage business whose inequitable practices make housing not available to individuals because of:
  
  race or color. religion. sex. national origin. familial status, or. special needs.
  
  In cases including discrimination in mortgage loans or home improvement loans, the Department might file 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 persons raises a concern of public significance. Where force or danger of force is used to reject or interfere with reasonable housing rights, the Department of Justice might institute criminal procedures. The Fair Housing Act likewise supplies procedures for managing individual problems of discrimination. Individuals who think that they have actually been victims of an illegal housing practice, might submit a grievance with the Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] or file their own lawsuit in federal or state court. The Department of Justice brings fits on behalf of individuals based upon recommendations from HUD.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Race or Color
  
  One of the main objectives of the Fair Housing Act, when Congress enacted it in 1968, was to forbid race discrimination in sales and leasings of housing. Nevertheless, more than 30 years later, race discrimination in housing continues to be a problem. Most of the Justice Department's pattern or practice cases include claims of race discrimination. Sometimes, housing providers try to disguise their discrimination by offering incorrect information about availability of housing, either stating that absolutely nothing was offered or guiding homeseekers to specific areas based on race. Individuals who receive such false information or misdirection might have no knowledge that they have actually been victims of discrimination. The Department of Justice has actually brought many cases declaring this kind of discrimination based on race or color. In addition, the Department's Fair Housing Testing Program seeks to uncover this kind of covert discrimination and hold those responsible accountable. Most of the mortgage lending cases brought by the Department under the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act have actually alleged discrimination based on race or color. A few of the Department's cases have also alleged that municipalities and other regional federal government entities breached the Fair Housing Act when they rejected authorizations or zoning modifications for housing advancements, or relegated them to mainly minority areas, because the potential homeowners were expected to be mainly African-Americans.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Religion
  
  The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing based upon religious beliefs. This instances of obvious discrimination against members of a particular faith also less direct actions, such as zoning regulations developed to limit the usage of private homes as a locations of praise. The variety of cases submitted since 1968 declaring religious discrimination is little in comparison to some of the other restricted bases, such as race or nationwide origin. The Act does include a limited exception that allows non-commercial housing run by a spiritual company to reserve such housing to individuals of the very 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 the last few years, the Department's focus in this area has actually been to challenge unwanted sexual advances in housing. Women, especially those who are poor, and with minimal housing alternatives, often have little option but to tolerate the humiliation and degradation of unwanted sexual advances or danger having their households and themselves got rid of from their homes. The Department's enforcement program is focused on property owners who develop an illogical living environment by requiring sexual favors from tenants or by developing a sexually hostile environment for them. In this manner we look for both to get relief for occupants who have been treated unfairly by a property manager due to the fact that of sex and also prevent other potential abusers by making it clear that they can not continue their conduct without dealing with effects. In addition, rates discrimination in mortgage lending may also adversely affect women, especially minority females. This type 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 forbids 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 indicate that the Hispanic population is the fastest growing sector of our nation's population. The Justice Department has actually taken enforcement action against community governments that have actually tried to reduce or limit the variety of Hispanic families that might 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 enforced more stringent underwriting standards on mortgage or made loans on less beneficial terms for Hispanic debtors. The Department has likewise taken legal action against lending institutions for discrimination against Native Americans. Other locations of the nation have experienced an increasing diversity of national origin groups within their populations. This consists of new immigrants from Southeastern Asia, such as the Hmong, the previous Soviet Union, and other parts of Eastern Europe. We have actually done something about it against private landlords who have actually victimized such individuals.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Familial Status
  
  The Fair Housing Act, with some exceptions, restricts discrimination in housing versus households with kids under 18. In addition to prohibiting a straight-out rejection of housing to households with kids, the Act also avoids housing suppliers from imposing any special requirements or conditions on renters with custody of children. For instance, property managers may not find households with children in any single portion of a complex, place an unreasonable restriction on the overall number of persons who may reside in a dwelling, or restrict their access to recreational services supplied to other renters. In many instances, the amended Fair Housing Act prohibits a housing company 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 kind of housing, which meets the requirements stated in the Housing for Older Persons Act of 1995, may run as "senior" housing. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has actually published guidelines and extra assistance detailing these statutory requirements.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Disability
  
  The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of special needs in all types of housing deals. The Act specifies persons with a special needs to imply those people with psychological or physical disabilities that significantly limit several major life activities. The term mental or physical impairment might consist of conditions such as loss of sight, hearing impairment, movement problems, HIV infection, mental retardation, alcohol addiction, drug dependency, persistent fatigue, finding out impairment, head injury, and psychological health problem. The term major life activity may include seeing, hearing, walking, breathing, carrying out manual tasks, looking after one's self, finding out, speaking, or working. The Fair Housing Act likewise safeguards persons who have a record of such a problems, or are considered as having such a disability. Current users of illegal regulated substances, individuals founded guilty for unlawful manufacture or distribution of an illegal drug, sex wrongdoers, and juvenile offenders are not considered handicapped under the Fair Housing Act, by virtue of that status. The Fair Housing Act manages no protections to people with or without disabilities who provide a direct danger to the persons or residential or commercial property of others. Determining whether somebody postures such a direct danger should be made on an individualized basis, however, and can not be based upon general presumptions or speculation about the nature of a special needs. The Division's enforcement of the Fair Housing Act's protections for persons with disabilities has concentrated on 2 significant locations. One is insuring that zoning and other guidelines worrying land usage are not employed to hinder the domestic choices of these individuals, consisting of needlessly restricting communal, or gather together, property arrangements, such as group homes. The 2nd location is guaranteeing that freshly constructed multifamily housing is integrated in accordance with the Fair Housing Act's ease of access requirements so that it is available to and functional by people with specials needs, and, in particular, those who utilize wheelchairs. There are other federal statutes that prohibit discrimination against individuals with specials needs, consisting of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is imposed by the Disability Rights Section of the Civil Liberty Division.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Disability Group Homes
  
  Some people with specials needs may live together in congregate living arrangements, often described 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 use policies that omit or otherwise discriminate versus people with disabilities. The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal--
  
  - To use land usage policies or actions that treat groups of individuals with disabilities less favorably than groups of non-disabled individuals. An example would be an ordinance restricting housing for persons with disabilities or a specific type of impairment, such as psychological health problem, from finding in a particular location, while enabling other groups of unassociated people to live together because location.
• To act against, or reject a permit, for a home because of the impairment of individuals who live or would live there. An example would be denying a structure authorization for a home since it was meant to supply housing for persons with psychological retardation.
• To decline to clear up lodgings in land usage and zoning policies and treatments where such accommodations may be essential to manage persons or groups of individuals with impairments a level playing field to utilize and delight in housing. What constitutes a reasonable accommodation is a case-by-case decision. Not all requested modifications of guidelines or policies are affordable. If an asked for adjustment enforces an excessive monetary or administrative burden on a city government, or if an adjustment produces an essential change in a regional government's land usage and zoning scheme, it is not a "sensible" accommodation.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Disability-- Accessibility Features for New Construction
  
  The Fair Housing Act specifies discrimination in housing against persons with disabilities to include a failure "to develop and build" specific new multi-family houses so that they are accessible to and usable by persons with specials needs, and particularly individuals who utilize wheelchairs. The Act needs all recently built multi-family homes of four or more units intended for first occupancy after March 13, 1991, to have particular features: an accessible entryway on an available path, accessible typical and public use locations, doors adequately broad to accommodate wheelchairs, accessible routes into and through each residence, light switches, electric outlets, and thermostats in accessible area, reinforcements in restroom walls to accommodate grab bar installations, and functional kitchen areas and restrooms set up so that a wheelchair can steer about the area.
  
  Developers, contractors, owners, and designers accountable for the style or building and construction of brand-new multi-family housing may be held responsible under the Fair Housing Act if their buildings stop working to satisfy these style requirements. The Department of Justice has actually brought lots of enforcement actions against those who failed to do so. Most of the cases have been resolved by authorization decrees providing a range of kinds of relief, including: retrofitting to bring inaccessible features into compliance where possible and where it is not-- alternatives (monetary funds or other building requirements) that will attend to making other housing units available