Fair Housing Act

Federal Fair Housing Amendments Act (FHAA)

In 1988, the Congress expanded Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968—which prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin—to include these protections for people with disabilities. By amending Title VIII to include people with disabilities as a protected class, the 1988 Act established a critical civil rights law to repudiate the use of stereotypes, prejudice, and ignorance to exclude people with disabilities from living in housing and communities of their choice.

In passing the law, congress made a clear pronouncement of a national commitment to end the unnecessary exclusion of people with disabilities from the mainstream of American life. The goal of the FHAA is to ensure "no person shall be subjected to discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin in the sale, rental or advertising of dwellings, in the provision of brokerage services, or in the availability of residential real-estate related transactions" (24 CFR 100.5).

Congressional report language at the time of passage of the FHAA made clear that the law as it applies to people with disabilities has three purposes:

• To end segregation of the housing available to people with disabilities.
• To give people with disabilities the right to choose where they wish to live; and
• To require reasonable accommodation to their needs in securing and enjoying appropriate housing.

This third purpose—assuring reasonable accommodation—is at the heart of the FHAA and is essential in bringing about the first two purposes—non-discrimination and choice.

The FHAA lays out a range of practices that are prohibited because they can result in discrimination against people with disabilities in the rental or sale of housing.

Landlords cannot:

• Refuse to rent or sell housing to someone because of his or her disability;
• Discriminate in the terms, conditions or privileges related to the sale or rental of housing;
• Misrepresent the availability of housing;
• Advertise in a way that discriminates against or shows a preference against a person with a disability;
• Use different qualification criteria or rental applications for housing;
• Evict someone because of his or her disability; or
• Steer someone to specific housing because of his or her disability.

In addition to these prohibited activities, the FHAA requires landlords to take proactive actions to ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to housing. These include:

• Making reasonable accommodations:
  • An owner must make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services when necessary to afford a person with a disability an equal opportunity to use and enjoy an apartment, including public and common areas.
• Making reasonable modifications:
  • An owner must allow a person with a disability to make physical modifications to a unit if needed by that individual to fully use and enjoy the housing unit.

In addition, the FHAA establishes design and construction standards for new and substantially rehabilitated multi-family housing. The federal regulations apply to all owner-occupied housing with five or more units and non-owner-occupied housing with four or more units. This includes private landlords and publicly-assisted landlords, such as Public Housing Authorities (PHAs). The FHAA also covers some housing owned or operated by service providers.

Finally, in defining coverage under the FHAA, Congress included the broadest possible class of people with disabilities, from those who have visible disabilities to those who have no disabilities but are so perceived. Congress also included advocacy organizations and providers of housing for people with disabilities in addition to consumers themselves under the FHAA’s definition of "aggrieved person." Therefore, the law protects entities acting on behalf of people with disabilities in obtaining housing.