What is Housing Discrimination?

Housing discrimination is against the law, but it is still something that happens to many people. It involves a potential tenant or homebuyer being treated differently because of his or her race, religion, color, sexual orientation, age or national origin. For example, refusing to rent to someone due to the color of their skin.

Housing discrimination is when a tenant, a potential tenant or a homebuyer is treated differently  from others due to his or her sexual orientation, race, age, national origin, color, religion, source of income, disability, marital status or any other arbitrary reason. This may involve refusing to sell or rent to certain people, making someone abide by rules that no one else has to abide by or by treating them differently than others.

It is also considered housing discrimination when a landlord refuses to accommodate a disabled tenant's reasonable request for special treatment that is needed because of his or her disability. For example, if the landlord refuses to allow the tenant to have a service animal on the premises, which is needed due to their disability.

Congress signed into legislation the Federal Fair Housing Act in 1968, which makes it a crime to discriminate against people in the rental or sale based on their sex, color, religion or national origin. The Fair Housing Act was expanded in 1988 to include familial status and disability. There are some things that are not protected by the Act such as refusing to rent to a person with bad credit and low income or felony convictions, to name a few.

There are approximately 600 cases of housing discrimination reported every year with about 20% of them being referred for further investigation by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.