Fair Housing / Lending News

Thiago Derucio and his partner were denied an apartment because they are gay. They responded to an online ad for housing but were turned down once their sexual orientation was revealed. Their experience is not unique. Same-sex couples often have to pay more in taxes when they buy or sell a home, or transfer ownership interest, than married heterosexual couples do. In other instances, they are denied housing loans . This is mainly because; there is no national law that protects against sexual orientation discrimination in housing. The federal Fair Housing Act as Amended (FHAA) prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or handicap but not sexual orientation and gender identity. A patchwork of state and local laws offers some of the much needed protections to gay and transgender people. But the lack of a comprehensive federal law means that people like Thiago and his partner, do ...

As often stated on this blog, the Fair Housing Act was enacted to protect certain groups of people against discrimination in housing. The Act extends this protection to any dwelling. The term “dwelling” has been broadly construed by the courts and can include any place where a person resides. “Dwellings” under the Act has been held to include vacation homes, residential hotels, migrant housing, dormitories, nursing homes, group homes, and homeless shelters where persons reside for extended periods of time.   Jails, motels and detention or correctional facilities do not qualify as dwellings under the Act, thus far. In an interesting housing case against the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK), the University argued that, university housing does not qualify as a dwelling under the Fair Housing Act and compare its student housing to a jail! The U.S. Justice Department sued the university last year, saying it unlawfully denied former UNK student Brittany Hamilton the chance to...