The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) recently released its 2024 Fair Housing Trends Report.
According to the report, there were 34,150 fair housing complaints received by non-profit Fair Housing Organizations (FHO), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP) agencies, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2023, compared to 33,007 in 2022 – a 3.5% increase. This represents the highest number of fair housing complaints recorded since NFHA began producing its Trends Report in the mid-1990s.
Discrimination based on disability accounted for the majority (17,968 or 52.61 percent) of complaints filed with FHOs, HUD, and FHAP agencies. This comes as no surprise. People with disabilities are at an extremely high risk of experiencing housing discrimination including:
- The failure of housing developers to build units that are accessible to people with disabilities;
- Discriminatory rental policies (e.g. refusing to rent to someone who uses a wheelchair for fear they may damage the floors or walls);
- Unequal treatment (e.g. refusing to allow someone with HIV to use the pool facilities because of fears they may transmit the virus to others);
- Failure to provide reasonable accommodations (e.g. refusing to allow an assistance animal in “no pet” housing);
- Failure to allow reasonable modifications (e.g. refusing to allow a tenant to modify their bathroom by installing grab bars and a roll-in shower)
- Exclusions and differential treatment due to paternalistic views and deep-rooted stigmas (e.g. refusing to rent to someone with a developmental disability unless they have a non-disabled roommate); and
- Harassment based on disability.
Sadly, the data reflected in NFHA’s report represents only a small portion of the millions of incidents of illegal housing discrimination that occur each year. Housing discrimination often goes undetected and unreported because it is difficult to identify and document. People may not be aware of their fair housing rights. It is also common for people who experience discrimination to feel that nothing can or will be done about their rights being violated, and/or they may be deterred from filing a complaint due to fear of retaliation.
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) will continue to do its part in combatting housing discrimination in our communities. However, the reality is that private nonprofit FHOs process the vast majority of housing discrimination complaints (75.52 percent in 2023), underscoring the need for lawmakers to allocate sustainable funding to support their critical work.
Read the full Fair Housing Trends report here: https://lnkd.in/gy-gT92D
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