HOW TO REPORT HOUSING DISCRIMINATION WITH HUD

https://www.hud.gov/fairhousing/fileacomplaint

If you believe your rights may have been violated, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) encourages you to report housing discrimination. Because there are time limits on when an allegation can be filed with HUD after an alleged violation, you should report housing discrimination as soon as possible. When reporting housing discrimination, please provide as much information as possible, including:

• Your name and address.
• The name and address of the person(s) or organization your allegation is against.
• The address or other identification of the housing or program involved.
• A short description of the event(s) that cause you to believe your rights were violated.
• The date(s) of the alleged violation.

Report Housing Discrimination Now

What is Housing Discrimination?

Discrimination under the Fair Housing Act (including housing that is privately owned and operated) is:

• Discrimination in renting or buying a home, getting a mortgage, seeking housing assistance, or engaging in other housing-related activities.
• Discrimination on the basis of: race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), familial status, disability).

Who May File an Allegation - Anyone who has been or will be harmed by a discriminatory housing practice.

Who May Have an Allegation Filed Against Them - Property owners, property managers, developers, real estate agents, mortgage lenders, homeowners associations, insurance providers, and others who affect housing opportunities.

You can Report Housing Discrimination with HUD

ONLINE in English (also available in Español, 中文, Tiếng Việt, 한국인, العربية, Русский, ខ្មែរ, and Soomaali).

BY PHONE. HUD speaks your language! Talk with a HUD intake specialist by calling: 1-800-669-9777. You can also call your regional FHEO office at the phone numbers on this list.

BY MAIL. You can print out this form (also available in Español, 繁體中文, Tiếng Việt, 한국인, عربي, Русский, ខ្មែរ, and Soomaali) and mail it to your regional HUD office at the address on this list.

Assistance for Persons with Disabilities

HUD welcomes and is prepared to receive calls from individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as individuals with speech or communication disabilities. To learn more about how to make an accessible telephone call, please visit Telecommunications Relay Service - TRS.

Assistance for Persons with Limited English Proficiency

You can report housing discrimination in any language. For persons with limited English proficiency, HUD provides interpreters. HUD also provides a Spanish language version of the online report housing discrimination form. You can find descriptions of your fair housing rights in several languages other than English here.

Retaliation Is Illegal

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

It is illegal to retaliate against any person because that person reported a discriminatory practice to a housing provider or other authority. 

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) also makes it illegal for a public housing agency, owner, or manager of housing assisted under a VAWA covered housing program to retaliate against someone for seeking or exercising VAWA protections for themself or another. This includes protection for people who testify, assist, or participate in any VAWA matter on their own, or another’s, behalf. 

If you believe you have experienced retaliation, you should report housing discrimination!

Types of Allegations Investigated

HUD investigates allegations, which may be one or both of the following:

(1) Discrimination under the Fair Housing Act.

(2) Discrimination and other civil rights violations in housing and community development programs, including those funded by HUD.

(3) Discrimination Under the Violence Against Women Act.

Additional Resources

Learn About the Reporting Process

Get Help Before Reporting Housing Discrimination

Reporting in Languages Other than English

Housing Discrimination Under the Fair Housing Act

HUD Multifamily Housing Complaints

Housing Choice Voucher and Public Housing Complaints

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Source of Information: HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.

Tackling Racial Inequities in Homeownership

The Urban Institute's recent landscape analysis of the racial homeownership gap - A Landscape Scan of Homeownership for Households of Color (November 2022) - found that households of color have lower homeownership rates than white households. While reasons for these racial disparities vary, "they are often attributable to differences in households’ access to financial resources and persistent racial discrimination."

On October 4, 2023, the Urban Institute and Living Cities held a conference to explore how homeownership could be made more equitable for everyone. Living Cities "is a collaborative of 19 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions working to close racial income and wealth gaps in American cities."

At the conference, local and federal government leaders discussed systemic inequity in homeownership for people of color and various innovative solutions to close these persistent homeownership gaps. Especially highlighted were the local homeownership initiatives currently being done by cities in the "Closing the Gaps’ Year of Reckoning Cohort" and existent racial equity plans by federal agencies.

While racial disparities in homeownership persist, institutions such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and state and local governments are working to achieve greater racial equity in U.S. homeownership. 

Barriers to Homeownership Equity

One conference focus was a panel focused specifically on federal barriers to homeownership for nonwhite communities. Participants included Katrina Jones, vice president of racial equity strategy and impact at Fannie Mae; Demetria McCain, principal deputy assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity at HUD; Pamela Perry, vice president of single-family equitable housing at Freddie Mac; and Rekha Balu, director of federal equity initiatives at the Urban Institute.

Saving the funds needed to close on a single-family home is a major impediment for prospective first-time homebuyers in communities of color. This challenge stems from historic wealth inequities that diminish generational wealth.  Additional obstacles to equity include insufficient access to credit disproportionately impacting Black and Latino families and high rental housing costs sap families' efforts to save money toward a downpayment. Most renters' on-time rental payments are not reported to credit bureaus, reducing their credit scores and lessening their ability to qualify for a mortgage at a favorable rate. One solution could be to increase an applicant's credit score by 60 points and make them eligible for prime financing rather than a subprime loan.

Even among homeowners, inequities persist.  A homeowner's race often affects assessments of home values is attested by the approximately 200 active appraisal discrimination cases HUD is managing. Scammers have targeted communities, such as Black and Caribbean homeowners in New York, and defrauded them out of their titles, according to HUD. 

Possible Solutions to Inequity

Important solutions proposed included: 

(1) Efforts to bridge the gap between aggregate and abstract data and families’ on-the-ground, anecdotal experiences. Jones described efforts at Fannie Mae to create fictional personas to illustrate the specific barriers different groups of people face in their journeys toward homeownership; these personas, created from housing data and research reports, help make housing challenges more comprehensible and less abstract. The personas give researchers at Fannie Mae analytic clarity to better understand how different groups’ challenges in the journey to homeownership intersect and differ. According to Jones, this approach offers a powerful way to bridge the gap between individual experience and aggregate data to drive tailored policy changes through the organization’s Equitable Housing Finance Plan.

(2) The panelists pointed out that real estate professionals can also make improvements. For example, diversifying the home appraisal industry can help reduce racial appraisal gaps. Perry described a partnership among Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Appraisal Institute (a professional organization that educates, credentials, and develops ethical standards for real estate appraisers) to hold recruiting events and increase scholarship and mentorship opportunities to diversify the profession. McCain added that Mississippi, which had scored poorly on a national assessment of diversity among home appraisers, responded by creating a program to recruit and train a more diverse cohort of appraisers.

(3) Special purpose credit programs, which target credit to historically underserved communities and communities living with the legacies of past discrimination, can also help alleviate homeownership inequities. McCain stated that HUD has found that special purpose credit programs for real estate loans or credit assistance are permissible and has advocated for their expansion to help promote homeownership equity. Perry pointed out that the U.S. has historically promoted homeownership through generous mortgage programs, noting that in the 1950s, many white families took advantage of favorable lending terms that facilitated first-time home purchases - opportunities denied to families of color, which has contributed to the inequities of the present. Jones added that similar credit programs today that require lower downpayments or offer homeownership counseling remain useful tools for promoting homeownership, this time for those who had previously been excluded.

(4) A sustained focus on identifying barriers to homeownership and a commitment to implementing solutions are showing how organizations can help homebuyers overcome longstanding housing inequities. The ongoing challenge, said panelists, is bringing these and other solutions to maturity and to scale. 

Read the November 14, 2023 PD&R Edge article.

 

46th Anniversary of Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)

 Important Law Against Lending Discrimination Celebrated

The following is from an October 12, 2023 email blast from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) which works to lessen mortgage lending discrimination.

Tomorrow, October 12, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) turns 46! As we excitedly await the new federal rule that is both long overdue and essential, we reflect upon what CRA has done in the last four decades, and what it could do for underserved communities all across America with the proper updates and modernization.  Join us tomorrow, all day across all social media platforms, as we acknowledge and celebrate the Community Reinvestment Act. Here are some sample messages and graphic to encourage your participation.

CRA Birthday Toolkit

CRA requires banks to meet the credit needs of all communities, including LMI areas, consistent with the safety and soundness of the banks’ operations. The law created a framework wherein community organizations, banking regulatory agencies and financial institutions interact in assessing how well a financial institution is meeting the needs of disadvantaged communities. This framework has proven critical in promoting greater investment and service in areas that banks might otherwise disregard.    NCRC and our members have used the CRA to negotiate community benefits agreements (CBAs) with 21 different banks, totaling over $574 billion in loans and investments for affordable housing, small businesses, economic development and bank branches in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods and communities of color.   Let’s celebrate CRA and encourage the banking regulators to release the rule we have all been waiting for!   Thanks for all that you do, Team NCRC

Copyright © 2023 NCRC, All rights reserved. Manage Preferences/Unsubscribe

National Community Reinvestment Coalition 740 15th St NW, Suite 400 Washington,DC 20005

HUD CHARGES OWNER AND PROPERTY MANAGER OF MISSOURI AREA RENTAL PROPERTIES WITH DISCRIMINATION BASED ON SEX

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has charged Second Bell Trust, owner of multiple single-family rental properties in the Springfield, Missouri area, and its agent and property manager, Jimmie Bell, with housing discrimination for allegedly subjecting a female tenant to sexual harassment, including requests for sexual favors in exchange for rent, unwanted touching, and discriminatory statements based on sex. Read the charge.

"Subjecting tenants to unwelcome sexual advances and sexual harassment is outrageous and a clear violation of the law," said Demetria L. McCain, HUD's Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. "Today's charge sends a clear message to all landlords that HUD is committed to taking action against landlords whose behavior violates the Fair Housing Act."

HUD's charge, issued on behalf of the tenant and her children and nephew, alleges the property manager made repeated unwelcome sexual comments to the tenant and pressured her to provide sexual favors when she fell behind on rent payments. The charge further alleges he grabbed the tenant’s intimate areas. After enduring several years of sexual harassment from him, the tenant moved out.

HUD's charge will be heard by a U.S. Administrative Law Judge unless any party to the charge wants to have the case heard in federal district court. If an administrative law judge finds after a hearing that discrimination has occurred, the judge may award damages to the complainant for harm caused by discrimination. The judge may also order injunctive relief and other equitable relief, payment of attorney fees, and civil fines. If the matter is decided in federal court, that judge may also award punitive damages.

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Source: 

Read the September 1, 2023 HUD press release.

HUD Charges Landlord with Disability Discrimination

 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has charged Ronit Mecham and Voyl “Tom” Mecham, the owner and property manager of a dwelling in Jamestown, New York, with violating the Fair Housing Act by refusing to allow a tenant with a disability to live with her assistance animal. Read the charge here.

The Fair Housing Act outlaws discrimination based on disability. Such discrimination includes refusing to provide reasonable accommodation so that persons with disabilities can enjoy their housing. A reasonable accommodation includes waiving a “no pet” policy for assistance animals, which was violated in this case. The Act also prohibits statements that indicate a preference or limitation based on disability.

“Assistance animals provide people with disabilities the support they need to enjoy the benefits of their housing,” said HUD’s Principal Assistant Deputy Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. “HUD is committed to zealously enforcing the Act to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities.”

HUD’s Charge alleges that Respondents denied the tenant’s request for an assistance animal and then required her to either terminate the lease early or leave when the lease term ended. Although the tenant offered to submit medical documentation supporting her request, the owner-managers stopped communicating with her instead. The charge also alleges that the owner-managers made comments indicating a preference for non-disabled tenants.

A U.S. Administrative Law Judge will hear HUD’s Charge unless either HUD or the accused owner-managers chooses to have the case heard in federal district court. If an administrative law judge finds, after a hearing, that discrimination has occurred, the judge may award damages to the individuals for their losses as a result of the discrimination. The judge may also order injunctive relief and other equitable relief to deter further discrimination, payment of attorney fees, and civil penalties. If the federal court hears the case, that judge may also award punitive damages to the complainant.

People who believe they are the victims of housing discrimination should contact HUD at (800) 669-9777 (voice) 800-927-9275 (TTY) or the U.S. Department of Justice at (800) 896-7743 or 202-514-4713. More info is available at www.hud.gov/fairhousing and www.justice.gov. Materials and assistance are available for persons with limited English proficiency. Individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing may contact HUD using the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339.

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Sources: 

HUD press release email, September 18, 2023.

Read the September 18, 2023 HUD press release.

 Housing Discrimination on Basis of Criminal History Outlawed

August 15, 2023

2-Year Evaluation Released of Benefits of Cook County, Illinois, Ban of Housing Discrimination Based on Criminal History In 2019, Cook County enacted the Just Housing Amendment (JHA) to ensure equitable housing access for individuals with criminal records. The JHA thus helps these individuals obtain safe, stable, and affordable housing. The ordinance prohibits people who are selling or leasing housing units from soliciting criminal background information until an applicant has been determined to be otherwise qualified to occupy a residence. The Cook County Commission on Human Rights (CCCHR), which is responsible for protecting county residents and workers from discrimination and wage theft, subsequently amended its rules and regulations to include interpretive rules for JHA. Managed by the Cook County Commission on Human Rights (CCCHR), JHA employs a dual-phase screening process: applicants are initially evaluated based on non-criminal criteria, followed by a comprehensive criminal background check considering offense details and rehabilitation efforts. The CCCHR's commitment to fostering fairness is demonstrated by their proactive policy approach and continued assessments of the JHA's effectiveness. Learn more about how CCCHR enforces the JHA here. As part of its duties, CCCHR has prepared two annual evaluations of JHA and the commission’s interpretive rules. Enforcement data from the most recent evaluation in 2022 indicate that CCCHR has received a total of 38 complaints related to JHA violations. Of these complaints, 26 concerned improper denials based on criminal conviction history, and 12 concerned discriminatory advertisements that included illegal wording such as “no felons” and “no convicted drug dealers.” Twenty-seven of the complaints have been closed. Of the closed cases, 18 resulted in monetary awards totaling approximately $31,000 as well as training for housing providers, 2 cases resulted in the complainant being rehoused, and 7 complaints were withdrawn. The 2022 report also describes CCCHR’s outreach, training, and intragovernmental coordination meetings. One significant effort during the previous year was CCCHR’s incorporation of the two-step process into software that small landlords commonly use for applicant screening. With the updated software, CCCHR estimates that more than 7,000 housing applications per month will undergo JHA-compliant screening. Visit HUD User’s RBC In Depth page to learn more about Cook County's Just Housing Amendment, as well as other plans and initiatives that state and local governments have enacted to reduce impediments to affordable housing. ***** Sources: U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), HUD User. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/rbc/indepth.html. https://www.cookcountyil.gov/content/just-housing-amendment-human-rights-ordinance.

 Fair Lending News:

CFPB Releases 2022 Fair Lending Annual Report to Congress

On June 26, 2023, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau(CFPB) released its Fair Lending Annual Report to Congress, describing its fair lending activities in enforcement and supervision; guidance and rulemaking; interagency coordination; and outreach and education for calendar year 2022.

In 2022, the CFPB’s fair lending work centered on the consumers and communities most affected by unlawful discrimination:

• Working with our federal and state partners to address redlining as well as confronting deep-seated discrimination in the home appraisal industry. 
• The CFPB also released several reports shining a light on factors that may influence fair access to credit, including how medical debt affects tens of millions of consumers’ credit profiles, how people in under-resourced rural areas struggle to access financial services, and the challenges faced by justice-involved individuals and families.
• We also issued several rules and guidance documents reaffirming the importance and applicability of fair lending protections for prospective applicants, applicants for credit, and existing account holders. Through our enforcement and examination activity, interpretive rules and advisory opinions, circulars, and other tools, we continue to make clear that fair lending must be a top priority for all financial institutions.

The Fair Lending Annual Report to Congress fulfills the CFPB’s statutory responsibility to, among other things, report annually to Congress on public enforcement actions taken by other agencies with administrative enforcement responsibilities under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), and assessments of the extent to which compliance with ECOA has been achieved. It also fulfills the statutory requirement that the CFPB, in consultation with HUD, report annually on the utility of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act’s requirement that covered lenders itemize certain mortgage loan data.

Through 2023 and beyond, the CFPB will continue to stand up for those consumers and small businesses who are the least resourced to fight back against exploitation.

As noted in the Future of Fair Lending section at the end of the Report, we are focused especially on the increased use of advanced and emerging technologies in financial services. Consumers and small businesses are not well-resourced to fight back against—and may not even know they are subject to—algorithmic bias, digital surveillance and data harvesting, dark patterns, and advanced technologies that are black boxes. The CFPB has increased its expertise in data science and analytics to ensure that we can identify fair lending violations at each stage of the credit lifecycle. And we will continue to take a whole-of-government approach to protect consumers from harmful uses of automated systems marketed as artificial intelligence. As the CFPB reiterated in conjunction with the release of our joint statement with the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, we will hold creditors and service providers accountable for fully complying with fair lending and other federal consumer financial laws, regardless of the technology they choose to use.

The CFPB also continues to fight against bias in home appraisals and redlining. Families and entire communities are harmed by biased, inaccurate appraisals, as well as geographic discrimination, or redlining. Whether it takes the form of excluding neighborhoods with certain demographics from mainstream credit or targeting them with predatory products, the CFPB is combatting these unlawful practices to achieve meaningfully restorative outcomes for the affected consumers and communities.

The CFPB remains committed to protecting individuals, small businesses, and communities from discrimination, holding institutional and individual bad actors accountable, and ensuring robust and comprehensive remedies for violations of the laws under our jurisdiction. In the years to come, we look forward to advancing our work to ensure a fair, equitable, and nondiscriminatory credit market, with equal economic opportunity for all consumers and their communities.

 Housing Discrimination in Georgia: 

Cartersville, Georgia Motel Manager Pleads Guilty to Coercing Labor and Sex Acts by Female Tenant

According to court documents, the 70 year-old manager of the Budgetel Motel hired her as a house cleaner, knowing that she had been homeless, struggled with heroin addiction, and lost child custody. He promised that he would help her regain custody of her child by providing her pay, an apartment, and an attorney. Instead, he monitored her interactions with motel guests and employees, forbade her from speaking to them, and made numerous sexual overtures. He threatened to evict her from the room and threatened to report her drug use to law enforcement or child welfare agencies. He regularly “evicted” her from her motel room, locked her out of her room at night without warning, and required her to perform oral sex on him to stay at the motel. If she did not, Tiwari removed her from the property, causing her to be homeless. 

Sentencing is set for September 6, and the man faces a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. As part of his plea agreement, he agreed to pay just over $40,000 in restitution to his victims. 

A federal judge will determine any sentence based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

Read the June 1, 2023 USDOJ release.

 HUD Fair Housing Month Proclamation

April is National Fair Housing Month!

This year, we commemorate the 55th anniversary of the passage of the Fair Housing Act, the landmark civil rights law signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on April 11, 1968, that made discrimination in housing transactions unlawful. The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing because of race, color national origin, religion, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, and familial status. For more information about your fair housing rights, visit FHEO's website.

 

Celebrate With Us: 

Fair Housing Month Events

 

Fair Housing Month 2023 Opening Ceremony

FHEO hosted the Fair Housing Month Opening Ceremony on April 11.

Watch the recording (coming soon)

Fair Housing Month 2023 National Event

Register to watch the National Event, Building an Equitable Future: A Housing Policy Conversation with Gen Z College Students, on Wednesday, April 26 at 2:00 p.m. EDT

Register for the Event (free) >

Watch the Event on April 26 >

Fair Housing Poster and Virtual Backgrounds

For more Fair Housing Month resources, visit FHEO’s Outreach Tools Page.

Download the Poster >

Download Virtual Backgrounds >

 

Opening Ceremony Features

 

Marcia L. Fudge, HUD Secretary

Demetria L. McCain, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity

Lee Porter, Executive Director, The Fair Housing Council of Northern New Jersey

Texas Southern University Debate Team