April is Fair Housing Month

WASHINGTON – April 6, 2010 – A Massachusetts family is billed by the landlord because their children played in an outdoor common area, and then fines the family when they file a fair housing complaint. An Alabama landlord is charged with turning off the water and evicting a white family because one tenant has an African-American boyfriend. An Illinois university student who is vision impaired and epileptic is refused dormitory housing because she has a trained service dog.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and private groups investigate these and other discrimination cases under the Fair Housing Act, 42 years after it became law in April 1968. In honor of Fair Housing Month, celebrated each April, HUD has declared 2010 a “Time to Act!”

The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to discriminate in housing transactions based on race, color, national origin, religion, gender, disability or familial status. Each year HUD and communities and organizations across the country recognize Fair Housing Month by hosting an array of activities that enhance the public’s awareness of their fair housing rights. The theme for this year’s activities is “Fair Housing in 2010: Time to Act.”

HUD’s fair housing initiatives include an expanded effort to work with states and local communities to reinforce a federal requirement that they promote diverse, inclusive housing opportunities when spending federal funds. And for the first time, the Department is examining the prevalence of housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and discrimination based on a tenant’s use of government assistance to pay rent.

© 2010 Florida Realtors®