Housing Discrimination is more than a refusal to rent, sell or finance housing. With few exceptions, the law prohibits the following acts when based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, disability, age, marital status, sexual orientation, student status, or source of income:
- Steering people and families to or away from a particular neighborhood or a certain part of an apartment complex;
- Charging a higher security deposit or offering different terms and conditions, use of facilities, or other services associated with the rental, sale or financing of housing;
- Having different qualifying standards, such as closer scrutiny of credit history for some groups while bending the rules for others;
- Saying that housing is not available to view, buy, or rent when it is in fact available;
- Sexual harassment by an owner or agent;
- Harassment of buyers or renters who are exercising their fair housing rights. Harassment of sellers, rental agents, or real estate agents who refuse to discriminate.
Law
Title VIII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1968 is commonly referred to as the Federal Fair Housing Act. This federal law, as amended in 1974 and 1988, protects each individual’s right to equal housing opportunity without discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, and/or familial status (the presence of children).
In Michigan, housing discrimination is prohibited by the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act and the Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act. State law includes all federal protections as well as age, marital status, height and weight.
Local ordinances provide added protection against discrimination based on (Ann Arbor) condition of pregnancy, source of income, family responsibilities, educational association, sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status; (Ypsilanti) sexual orientation, educational association,or source of income; (Lansing) student status, veteran status, political affiliation or belief, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or source of income; (East Lansing) sexual orientation, student status, use of adaptive devices or aids or legal source of income; and (Jackson) source of income.
History
Sweeping changes marked the 1960′s as a decade of progress in both civil rights and open housing legislation. The movement toward racial equality included the Supreme Court’s Brown v Board of Education, the Public Accommodations Bill, and the Voting Rights Act. All helped to shape the U.S. Civil Rights Act signed into law on April 11, 1968, the week following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Watch this historical moment come to life on the following YouTube video.
[The following is an excerpt from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. You can read more history of the Federal Fair Housing Act on their website.]
On April 11, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which was meant as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The 1968 act expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, sex, (and as amended) handicap and family status. Title VIII of the Act is also known as the Fair Housing Act (of 1968).
The enactment of the federal Fair Housing Act on April 11, 1968 came only after a long and difficult journey. From 1966-1967, Congress regularly considered the fair housing bill, but failed to garner a strong enough majority for its passage. However, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson utilized this national tragedy to urge for the bill’s speedy Congressional approval. Since the 1966 open housing marches in Chicago, Dr. King’s name had been closely associated with the fair housing legislation. President Johnson viewed the Act as a fitting memorial to the man’s life work, and wished to have the Act passed prior to Dr. King’s funeral in Atlanta.
Another significant issue during this time period was the growing casualty list from Vietnam. The deaths in Vietnam fell heaviest upon young, poor African-American and Hispanic infantrymen. However, on the home front, these men’s families could not purchase or rent homes in certain residential developments on account of their race or national origin. Specialized organizations like the NAACP, the GI Forum and the National Committee Against Discrimination In Housing lobbied hard for the Senate to pass the Fair Housing Act and remedy this inequity. Senators Edward Brooke and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts argued deeply for the passage of this legislation. In particular, Senator Brooke, the first African-American ever to be elected to the Senate by popular vote, spoke personally of his return from World War II and inability to provide a home of his choice for his new family because of his race.
With the cities rioting after Dr. King’s assassination, and destruction mounting in every part of the United States, the words of President Johnson and Congressional leaders rang the Bell of Reason for the House of Representatives, who subsequently passed the Fair Housing Act. Without debate, the Senate followed the House in its passage of the Act, which President Johnson then signed into law.
The power to appoint the first officials administering the Act fell upon President Johnson’s successor, Richard Nixon. President Nixon tapped then Governor of Michigan, George Romney, for the post of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. While serving as Governor, Secretary Romney had successfully campaigned for ratification of a state constitutional provision that prohibited discrimination in housing. President Nixon also appointed Samuel Simmons as the first Assistant Secretary for Equal Housing Opportunity.
