Legally Speaking
HUD extends fairhousing protections By Mark Zinman, Esq.
Wait, don’t stop reading – this isn’t a legal article about COVID-19, the eviction moratorium or other restrictions on landlord’s rights. Finally, for maybe the first time in over a year, there is something else to write about. When it comes to fair-housing laws, the federal government has said that “sex” now includes sexual orientation and gender identity. While we have taught for years that a property owner or manager should never discriminate against a resident or prospective resident based upon their sexual orientation or gender identity, this policy has now been formally adopted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD has also stated that it will look back over the past year and immediately start prosecuting cases on this basis. Many people are not aware that sexual orientation and gender identity are not explicitly covered by the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA). It lists seven protected classes: race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status and disability. The FHA does not explicitly include sexual orientation or gender identity. It has been debated and argued for years whether such classes fall under sex, or whether sex only applies to whether someone is male and female. “Sex” was added as a protected class in 1975, right after important cases regarding women’s rights. Therefore, many people have argued that as of 1974, sex only referred to gender and that if sexual orientation is to be covered, it should be done so explicitly.
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Apartment News | March/April 2021
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