December 28, 2015
Often when a violation of the Fair Housing Act occurs, it’s up to the victim to report the incident in order for the situation to be fixed. Those who fail to report such violations may not only cheat themselves out of a fair deal, but also allow such violations to continue to occur.
Consider a recent settlement by HUD, which recently approved a pair of “Conciliation Agreements” with Delap Realty, LLC, of Northampton, Massachusetts, resolving allegations mentioned in an FHA/HUD press release that, “…the company and its agents violated the Fair Housing Act by discouraging families with children from renting over concerns the units might contain lead-based paint hazards.”
Under the Fair Housing Act, it is illegal to deny or limit housing because a family has children. It’s also not legal to, in the words of the press release, “make statements that discriminate against families with children. Housing may exclude children only if it meets the Fair Housing Acts exemption for housing for older persons” says HUDNo15-160, a press release issued just before the December holiday break.
Families with children have a right to the same housing choices as other families, said Gustavo Velasquez, HUDs Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. We are pleased that these agreements will help more families to be informed about the Fair Housing Act and their right to live in a healthy home.
The press release says the recent settlement agreements are, “the result of complaints filed with the Department by the Housing Discrimination Project, Inc., a HUD Fair Housing Initiatives Program agency, alleging that when prospective renters responded to online ads placed by Delap, its agents discouraged families with children from applying.”
In this particular case, a watchdog agency was able to report the illegal conduct and get it stopped. But that’s not possible in every case–sometimes the victim of the discrimination is the only one capable of revealing it and getting a review started. As the press release states, anyone who feels they have been discriminated against in the housing process should contact the HUD Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at (800) 669-9777 (voice) or (800) 927-9275 (TTY).
You can also file housing discrimination complaints online: www.hud.gov/fairhousing.
Do you work in residential real estate? You should know about the free tool offered by FHA.com. It is designed especially for real estate websites; a widget that displays FHA loan limits for the counties serviced by those sites. It is simple to spend a few seconds customizing the state, counties, and widget size for the tool; you can copy the code and paste it into your website with ease. Get yours today:
http://www.fha.com/fha_loan_limits_widget
Joe Wallace has been specializing in military and personal finance topics since 1995. His work has appeared on Air Force Television News, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and a variety of print and online publications. He is a 13-year Air Force veteran and a member of the Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association. He was Managing editor for www.valoans.com for (8) years and is currently the Associate Editor for FHANewsblog.com.
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