June 21, 2013 | Categories: News, Press Release, Publications | Tags: Fair Housing Act, gender identity, HUD, LGBT, lgbt equality, sexual orientation, Transgender, US Department of Housing and Urban Development
Earlier this week the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released a report on the first ever nation-wide study on housing discrimination against same-sex couples.
The study, conducted via emails in 2011, confirms that same-sex couples experience housing discrimination more than their opposite-sex couple counterparts.
Discriminatory treatment was predominately evident in the lack of response to email inquiry’s. To “otherwise make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any person because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin” is unlawful under the Fair Housing Act. However, persons who are lesbian, gay, or transgender, are not afforded rights under the FHA thus the findings were not illegal.
We applaud HUD’s efforts to investigate treatment of people who in same-sex relationships and we encourage further work to be done on transgender and gender identity discrimination, as well as discrimination towards lesbian and gay individuals.
You can read more about the methodology of the study, outcomes, and recommendations in HUD’s Press Release. You can also read the 2007 report on same-sex discrimination by Michigans’ Fair Housing Centers.