National Fair Housing Month 2020
National Fair Housing Month 2020
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) observes National Fair Housing Month every April. The theme for the 2020 Fair Housing Month commemoration is Call HUD: Because Sexual Harassment in Housing is Illegal. “Call HUD” is a public awareness campaign to urge persons who experience sexual harassment where they live to call HUD for help. Throughout the month of April HUD and its partner agencies will highlight stories of HUD’s fair housing continuing efforts to combat sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination in housing.
This year’s theme focuses on protecting the rights of individuals to feel safe and secure in their homes, free from sexual harassment or unwanted sexual advances by property owners, managers, maintenance workers or other residents. HUD’s national Fair Housing Month helps to educate the public about what behaviors and actions constitute sexual harassment.
Every year, HUD and its fair housing partner organizations continue to pursue enforcement actions, work to enhance the public’s awareness of their housing rights and emphasize the importance of ending housing discrimination.
Under the Fair Housing Act, in the sale and rental of housing, no one may take any of the following actions based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or handicap:
- Refuse to rent or sell housing
- Refuse to negotiate for housing
- Make housing unavailable
- Deny a dwelling
- Set different terms, conditions or privileges for sale or rental of a dwelling
- Provide different housing services or facilities
- Falsely deny that housing is available for inspection, sale, or rental
- For profit, persuade owners to sell or rent (blockbusting) or
- Deny anyone access to or membership in a facility or service (such as a multiple listing service) related to the sale or rental of housing.
It is illegal for anyone to:
- Threaten, coerce, intimidate or interfere with anyone exercising a fair housing right or assisting others who exercise that right.
- Advertise or make any statement that indicates a limitation or preference based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or handicap. This prohibition against discriminatory advertising applies to single-family and owner-occupied housing that is otherwise exempt from the Fair Housing Act.
The Fair Housing Act prohibits sex discrimination that impacts the terms or conditions of housing; is used as a basis for housing decisions; or otherwise has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with housing rights, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment. Sexual harassment committed by a landlord, property manager, employee, realtor, lender, insurance agent, or any other agent or representative involved in providing housing, or a real estate-related transaction violates the Fair Housing Act.
Sexual harassment includes any unwanted sexual advance, request for sexual favors, or other unwelcome verbal or physical contact of a sexual nature. It also can take the form of offensive remarks, derogatory statements or expressions of a sexual nature, or other hostile behavior because of a person’s sex. Harassment can consist of oral, written, or other conduct and does not require physical contact between the harasser and victim. Harassment can be directed to any person, male or female, by someone of the same sex or the opposite sex. Sexual harassment does not have to be motivated by sexual desire in order to violate the Fair Housing Act. Sexual harassment could be motivated by hostility toward a particular sex, even if the harasser is the same sex.
HUD Anti-harassment Rule
HUD has issued” Quid Pro Quo and Hostile Environment Harassment and Liability for Discriminatory Housing Practices under the Fair Housing Act”, (the Rule), as the standard to evaluate complaints of quid pro quo (“this for that”) harassment and hostile environment harassment under the Fair Housing Act.
Types of sexual harassment in housing:
Quid pro quo sexual harassment occurs when a landlord, property manager, employee, or agent conditions access to housing or retention of housing or housing-related services to an applicant or tenant’s submission to an unwelcome request or demand to engage in sexual conduct or sexual favors.
An unwelcome request or demand may constitute quid pro quo harassment even if a person acquiesces in the unwelcome request or demand.
Hostile environment sexual harassment refers to unwelcome sexual conduct that is sufficiently severe or pervasive as to interfere with the terms and conditions of tenancy or deprives the tenant of his right to use and enjoy the housing, resulting in an environment that is intimidating, hostile, offensive, or substantially less desirable.
Hostile environment harassment can also occur when a tenant is sexually harassed by another tenant and the harassment is not addressed by the housing provider.
Whether hostile environment harassment exists depends upon the circumstances. Factors to be considered include, but are not limited to, the nature of the conduct, the context in which the incident(s) occurred, the severity, scope, frequency, duration, and location of the conduct, and the relationships of the persons involved. Whether unwelcome conduct is sufficiently severe or pervasive as to create a hostile environment is evaluated from the perspective of a reasonable person standard.
In 2019, HUD and its partner fair housing agencies settled more than 600 complaints alleging discrimination based on one or more of the seven protected classes under the Fair Housing Act.
In more recent months, HUD approved several Conciliation Agreements with housing providers in Napa Valley, California, resolving allegations that the on-site manager for one of their properties sexually harassed female residents. The settlements called for the owners to pay $49,000 to women who filed complaints, remove the on-site manager and attend fair housing training. The owners and the manager of rental properties in Kansas will pay $160,000 in damages and penalties to resolve a Fair Housing Act lawsuit for sexual harassment of numerous female residents.
HUD has published new inflation-adjusted civil penalty amounts for individuals or entities that have been found to have violated a variety of different housing-related laws, including the federal Fair Housing Act. The new civil penalty amounts will apply to violations of the Fair Housing Act that occur on or after April 6, 2020. Under these revised amounts, someone can be assessed a maximum civil penalty of $21,410 for his or her first violation of the Fair Housing Act. Respondents who had violated the Fair Housing Act in the previous 5 years could be fined a maximum of $53,524, and respondents who had violated the Act two or more times in the previous 7 years could be fined a maximum of $107,050. These civil penalty amounts are in addition to actual damages and attorney’s fees and costs that may be awarded to someone who has experienced housing discrimination.
While the federal Fair Housing Act receives much national attention during Fair Housing Month, state and local fair housing laws also provide protections from housing discrimination. State and local city or county fair housing laws often provide broader coverage to additional protected classes such as sexual preference, gender identity, occupation, source of income, Section 8 voucher participation, educational status, medical status, marital status, military service, political affiliation, or other classes as noted by statue. Fair housing compliance should always be to those fair housing laws providing the greatest protections against discrimination.