The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination based on seven protected classes: race, color, national origin, religion, familial status, disability, and sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation).
Allegations of disability discrimination were more than half of all complaints in 2021, according to data from the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA). “One reason for this is that discrimination against persons with disabilities is easier to detect, as it most often occurs as an overt denial of a request for a reasonable accommodation or modification to the housing unit,” says NFHA’s 2022 Fair Housing Trends Report.
How can real estate professionals help prospects, clients, and tenants with disabilities receive the same access to fair housing as everyone else? Rachel Cohen-Miller, Supervising Attorney at Disability Rights Texas, told Texas REALTOR® magazine what the advocacy organization was seeing in the field and what agents, brokers, and property managers can do to help.
“A lot of people don’t know that there are actually laws that protect against discrimination,” she says. “We talk to folks about fair housing, and they tell us, ‘I had no idea this exists.’ On a practical level, many people don’t understand what discrimination looks like. The basics about what is fair housing are not common knowledge.”
Read the full article, “Prevent Disability Discrimination and Promote Fair Housing” on the Texas Realtor website.