Fair Housing Help: Who Makes Decisions When Apartment Hunting With a Disability?

One way that landlords commonly get into fair housing trouble is by making assumptions about a prospective tenant's housing needs based on their perception of the person's apparent disability. (See, for example, my post entitled, "Paying Dearly for Fair Housing Violations, Despite Good Intentions," October 9, 2009.)

If you're looking for an apartment with a disability or you're a landlord who encounters prospects whom you believe or know have a disability, remember that when it comes to wants and needs, the apartment hunters are the decision-makers—whether or not they have a disability.

Fair Housing Help: What's a 'Qualifying Disability'?

Many people know that federal fair housing law protects prospects and tenants against discrimination based on disability. But what the Fair Housing Act (FHA) considers to be a disability may surprise you by being broader or narrower than you think.

People who have a disability that fits the FHA's definition have the right to some important protections against discrimination. Tenants and landlords alike should check out this summary of the characteristics of a qualifying disability under the FHA.

Fair Housing Help: Learn From Others' Experiences or Share Your Own

One way to find out more about housing discrimination is to learn from others' actual experiences.

That's why I set up a "Readers Respond: Dealing With Housing Discrimination" resource so that apartment prospects and tenants have an outlet to share their fair housing experiences.

If you've got a fair housing story to tell, here's your chance to say what happened, how you dealt with the situation, and what you learned that might lead you to act differently next time.

Check the resource periodically for new stories.

Fair Housing Help: Learn Fair Housing Basics

Whether you're starting an apartment search or you already have a rental you call home, it's helpful to get familiar with fair housing law.

Learning about your rights as a tenant will enable you to spot illegal discrimination. Plus, if you believe you've become the victim of a fair housing violation, you'll be prepared by knowing your options for pursuing justice and seeking damages.

Here's a resource I put together recently to help people get familiar with the basics of fair housing law.

Fair Housing Help: Contact Your Local FHEO Office

Each one of the 10 Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) regional offices across the United States is responsible for enforcing the Fair Housing Act and related laws. A part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), FHEO also conducts training, outreach, and compliance monitoring and works with state and local agencies to administer fair housing programs within its geographic jurisdiction.

If you need to contact FHEO about a fair housing claim or other discrimination issue, you can use this table I created to locate your regional office and get contact information.

Fair Housing Help: Identify and Avoid Illegal Steering

Did you know there's a subtle but common form of housing discrimination called "steering"? The term generally refers to situations in which a landlord or other housing professional tries to limit choices by guiding or encouraging prospects to certain apartments, creating unfair, artificial restrictions.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) identifies four main types of illegal steering practices. Here's a summary I put together to help you get familiar with each one.

Fair Housing Help: Think Before Filing a Fair Housing Claim

People who believe they're the victim of housing discrimination often have strong emotions. Also, if you read the last post, you know how easy it is to pursue justice by filing a fair housing claim with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Given all this, it's important to think carefully before you proceed with filing a complaint. To help you, I put together an outline of important issues every tenant and prospective tenant should consider. Take a moment to read through each one before deciding to pursue a fair housing claim against a landlord or other housing professional.

Fair Housing Help: How to Pursue a Fair Housing Claim

Did you know that the Fair Housing Act (FHA) lets you pursue a claim of discrimination by filing a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)? Pursuing this route will save you time and money as well as the need to hire an attorney.

If you believe you're the victim of illegal discrimination, read my step-by-step guide for filing a complaint with HUD.

Fair Housing Help: What Are Protected Classes?

At the core of fair housing education is an understanding of the so-called "protected classes." For housing discrimination to be illegal, it must involve action taken by a landlord, property manager, broker, or other housing professional against a tenant or prospective tenant based on one or more protected classes.

Learn about the types of people fair housing law protects by reading my collection of answers to frequently asked questions about protected classes.

Landlord Puts No-Pets Policy Above the Law

Many landlords have a no-pets policy at their properties, or they have rules limiting the types of pets allowed. This is perfect legal. However, what many landlords don't know is that they must let tenants keep service animals in their apartments when needed as a reasonable accommodation for a disability. This means their policy is still valid, but they should be prepared to make an exception, if warranted, to comply with the Fair Housing Act's (FHA) ban against disability-based discrimination.

Landlords who aren't familiar with the FHA's reasonable accommodations requirement or who don't understand how it may affect their pet policy often go head-to-head with prospects and tenants, insisting on what they believe are their rights while getting themselves deeper into fair housing trouble.

A recent example shows how this plays out.

The owner and manager of a trailer park in Lakeland, Washington advertised apartments with a no-pets policy. A local non-profit fair housing organization sent testers posing as prospects who need service dogs for a disability respond to the ad. More than once, the owner told the testers no dogs are allowed. After the testers explained the dogs were service animals and needed a reasonable accommodation, the owner and manager still refused. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Charge of Discrimination, the manager argued that "if one tenant has an animal everyone will want one" and also expressed concern that animals will destroy the property.

The owner and manager will now have a chance to argue their case in from of a HUD administrative law judge.

Single Mom Told Only a Man Can Shovel Snow

A La Crosse County, Wisconsin landlord is facing discrimination charges after telling a single female prospect she was ineligible to rent a two-bedroom modular single-family house in a cattle farm with her child because her household is missing a man.

The landlord, a woman, expressed her opinions on single women several times to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), saying she never rents to them, "especially not in the country." She insisted that a single woman can't handle the seclusion of the rural community and the snow removal during "brutal" winters, and also didn't want a tenant calling her repeatedly to plow her out or make repairs. Not renting the house to a single woman with a child at the property was "just common sense," she concluded.

In light of these statements and the landlord's subsequent rental of the property to two men, HUD issued a Charge of Discrimination based on sex and familial status. An administrative law judge is expected to hear the case.

If you've been following this blog, you may recall reading a few years ago about a similar case in Idaho, in which a property manager settled with the government after denying housing to a single mother on the insistence that a man was needed to mow the lawn. (See "Requiring Men to Mow the Lawn Doesn't Cut It," September 16, 2008.)

The lesson from these cases to housing providers is, as HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity John Trasviña put it:

Fairness dictates, and the Fair Housing Act requires, that housing decisions not be based on outmoded stereotypes of people’s "place" in our society. HUD will enforce the law whenever a housing provider seeks to limit a woman’s housing choices because of her gender or family composition.