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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., forbids discrimination by direct providers of housing, such as proprietors and realty companies as well as other entities, such as towns, banks or other lending institutions and homeowners insurer whose inequitable practices make housing not available to individuals due to the fact that of:
  
  race or color. religious beliefs. sex. national origin. familial status, or. impairment.
  
  In cases including discrimination in mortgage loans or home improvement loans, the Department may submit 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 rejection of rights to a group of persons raises a problem of public importance. Where force or danger of force is used to reject or hinder fair housing rights, the Department of Justice may institute criminal procedures. The Fair Housing Act likewise provides treatments for managing individual problems of discrimination. Individuals who think that they have been victims of an unlawful housing practice, might file a grievance with the Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] or submit their own claim in federal or state court. The Department of Justice brings matches on behalf of individuals based upon referrals from HUD.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Race or Color
  
  One of the central 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 thirty years later, race discrimination in housing continues to be a problem. Most of the Justice Department's pattern or practice cases involve claims of race discrimination. Sometimes, housing companies attempt to disguise their discrimination by offering incorrect details about schedule of housing, either saying that absolutely nothing was readily available or guiding homeseekers to particular areas based on race. Individuals who get such incorrect details or misdirection might have no understanding that they have actually been victims of discrimination. The Department of Justice has actually brought numerous cases declaring this kind of discrimination based on race or color. In addition, the Department's Fair Housing Testing Program looks for to reveal this kind of covert discrimination and hold those responsible liable. Most 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 also declared that towns and other city government entities broke the Fair Housing Act when they rejected authorizations or zoning modifications for housing developments, or relegated them to predominantly minority communities, since the potential locals were expected to be mainly African-Americans.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Religion
  
  The Fair Housing Act forbids discrimination in housing based upon faith. This restriction covers circumstances of obvious discrimination versus members of a specific religious beliefs also less direct actions, such as zoning ordinances designed to limit the usage of personal homes as a places of praise. The number of cases filed since 1968 declaring spiritual discrimination is small in contrast to a few of the other restricted bases, such as race or national origin. The Act does include a restricted exception that permits non-commercial housing operated by a spiritual company to reserve such housing to persons of the very same faith.
  
  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 location has been to challenge sexual harassment in housing. Women, particularly those who are bad, and with restricted housing choices, often have little recourse but to tolerate the embarrassment and degradation of sexual harassment or danger having their households and themselves got rid of from their homes. The Department's enforcement program is aimed at landlords who develop an untenable living environment by requiring sexual favors from tenants or by creating a sexually hostile environment for them. In this way we seek both to acquire relief for tenants who have actually been dealt with unjustly by a property owner because 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, prices discrimination in mortgage lending may likewise adversely affect ladies, particularly minority women. 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 prohibits discrimination based upon national origin. Such discrimination can be based either upon the country of an individual's birth or where his/her ancestors come from. Census information indicate that the Hispanic population is the fastest growing segment of our country's population. The Justice Department has taken enforcement action against municipal governments that have actually attempted to lower or limit the variety of Hispanic families that might reside in their neighborhoods. We have actually sued loan providers under both the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act when they have imposed more stringent underwriting requirements on mortgage or made loans on less favorable terms for Hispanic borrowers. The Department has likewise taken legal action against lenders for discrimination versus Native Americans. Other locations of the nation have experienced an increasing diversity of national origin groups within their populations. This includes new immigrants from Southeastern Asia, such as the Hmong, the previous Soviet Union, and other portions of Eastern Europe. We have actually acted against private proprietors who have actually victimized such people.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Familial Status
  
  The Fair Housing Act, with some exceptions, prohibits discrimination in housing against households with children under 18. In addition to restricting an outright rejection of housing to households with kids, the Act also avoids housing providers from imposing any special requirements or conditions on renters with custody of children. For example, landlords might not locate households with children in any single part of a complex, put an unreasonable constraint on the overall variety of persons who might reside in a home, or restrict their access to leisure services supplied to other tenants. In most instances, the changed Fair Housing Act prohibits 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 kind of housing, which meets the standards set forth in the Housing for Older Persons Act of 1995, might operate as "senior" housing. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has actually released policies and additional guidance 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 transactions. The Act specifies individuals with an impairment to imply those people with mental or physical problems that significantly limit one or more significant life activities. The term psychological or physical impairment might consist of conditions such as blindness, hearing impairment, movement disability, HIV infection, psychological retardation, alcoholism, drug addiction, chronic tiredness, discovering disability, head injury, and mental disorder. The term significant life activity might include seeing, hearing, walking, breathing, carrying out manual tasks, caring for one's self, learning, speaking, or working. The Fair Housing Act also protects persons who have a record of such a disability, or are related to as having such a problems. Current users of prohibited controlled compounds, individuals convicted for illegal manufacture or distribution of an illegal drug, sex wrongdoers, and juvenile transgressors are ruled out handicapped under the Fair Housing Act, by virtue of that status. The Fair Housing Act pays for no protections to people with or without specials needs who provide a direct hazard to the individuals or residential or commercial property of others. Determining whether someone positions such a direct risk must be made on a personalized basis, nevertheless, 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 defenses for individuals with impairments has focused on 2 major locations. One is insuring that zoning and other guidelines concerning land use are not employed to prevent the residential choices of these people, including needlessly restricting communal, or gather together, domestic plans, such as group homes. The second area is insuring that recently built multifamily housing is integrated in accordance with the Fair Housing Act's ease of access requirements so that it is accessible to and functional by individuals with specials needs, and, in specific, those who utilize wheelchairs. There are other federal statutes that restrict discrimination against individuals with disabilities, consisting of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is implemented by the Disability Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Group Homes
  
  Some individuals with impairments might live together in congregate living plans, often described as "group homes." The Fair Housing Act restricts municipalities and other city government entities from making zoning or land use decisions or executing land use policies that omit or otherwise discriminate against individuals with specials needs. The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful--
  
  - To utilize land usage policies or actions that deal with groups of persons with specials needs less positively than groups of non-disabled persons. An example would be a regulation restricting housing for persons with specials needs or a particular kind of disability, such as mental disorder, from finding in a specific location, while permitting other groups of unrelated individuals to live together in that area.
• To act against, or reject an authorization, 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 planned to offer housing for persons with mental retardation.
• To decline to make sensible accommodations in land usage and zoning policies and treatments where such accommodations may be essential to pay for individuals or groups of persons with disabilities a level playing field to use and delight in housing. What constitutes a reasonable lodging is a case-by-case decision. Not all asked for adjustments of guidelines or policies are reasonable. If an asked for modification imposes an unnecessary monetary or administrative burden on a local government, or if a modification develops a basic modification in a local federal government's land use and zoning scheme, it is not a "affordable" accommodation.
  
  Discrimination in Housing Based Upon Disability-- Accessibility Features for New Construction
  
  The Fair Housing Act defines discrimination in housing against individuals with disabilities to consist of a failure "to design and build" certain new multi-family residences so that they are accessible to and functional by persons with specials needs, and especially people who use wheelchairs. The Act needs all recently built multi-family homes of 4 or more systems meant for very first tenancy after March 13, 1991, to have specific functions: an accessible entrance on an available path, accessible typical and public usage areas, doors adequately broad to accommodate wheelchairs, accessible routes into and through each dwelling, light switches, electrical outlets, and thermostats in accessible place, supports in restroom walls to accommodate grab bar setups, and usable bathroom and kitchens configured so that a wheelchair can maneuver about the space.
  
  Developers, builders, owners, and architects responsible for the style or construction of brand-new multi-family housing might be held accountable under the Fair Housing Act if their structures fail to satisfy these design requirements. The Department of Justice has actually brought lots of enforcement actions against those who stopped working to do so. The majority of the cases have been solved by permission decrees providing a variety of types of relief, consisting of: retrofitting to bring unattainable features into compliance where feasible and where it is not-- alternatives (financial funds or other construction requirements) that will offer making other housing systems accessible