MARYLAND ENFORCEMENT DATA SHOWS INCREASE IN HOUSING DISCRIMINATION COMPLAINTS
The Maryland Commission on Civil Rights (MCCR) recently released their annual report detailing their fair housing enforcement efforts. Read the 2020 MCCR Annual Report. MCCR reports that in 2020, they received 128 complaints of housing discrimination from Marylanders. This is a 37.6% increase from the 93 in 2019. Some 82.0% of these complaints (or 105) were from people who have a disability. A total of 53 of the complaints were based on race, with 91% of those from Black Marylanders.
The National Fair Housing Alliance has also released a report on U.S. Fair Housing Trends in 2020. They found that there were 28,880 fair housing complaints in the U.S. in 2019, a slight decrease. There were 17,010 complaint cases (58.9%) that involved discrimination against a person with a disability, now probably "the easiest to detect, as it most often takes place as an overt denial of a request for a reasonable accommodation or modification to the housing unit. The second most reported type of housing was discrimination on the basis of race with 4,757 (16.5%) cases, followed by familial status as the basis for discrimination in 2,228 (7.7%) cases; sex discrimination with 1,948 complaints (6.8%); national origin 1,730 (6.0%) cases; color with 646 (2.2%) cases; and religion the basis of 328 (1.1%) cases.
The Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition observes that "while Maryland makes up 1.84% of the US population, our fair housing complaints are just 0.32% of the complaints made nationwide. This low number of complaints, taken in concert with the pervasive segregation of housing in the Baltimore region and ample anecdotal evidence of discrimination, suggests that Marylanders are not reporting discrimination when they experience it."
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Sources:
Maryland Commission on Civil Rights 2020 Annual Report.
National Fair Housing Alliance report on U.S. Fair Housing Trends in 2020.
Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition Member Newsletter, April 2, 2021.
