A policy was announced in 2010 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) giving lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families and individuals more assistance when experiencing any housing discrimination. The new guidance, which treats gender-identity discrimination as gender discrimination under the Fair Housing Act, was announced by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan at HUD’s LGBT Pride Month Celebration. In addition, the new guidance also instructs HUD staff to inform those who are filing complaints about local and state agencies that enforce LGBT-inclusive discrimination laws.
John Trasvina, Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, explains that the HUD’s job is to combat and prevent any housing discrimination, which includes 21st century issues. Discrimination in lending, sales, and rental on the basis of gender, race, color, national origin, and familial status is prohibited by the Fair Housing Act, and because of the newly announced guidance, the HUD will jointly investigate or refer matters to those local, district, and state governments with other legal protections, in addition to retaining its jurisdiction over any complaints put forward by LGBT individuals and families.
Examples of these complaints are, if a female tenant is claiming to be discriminated by a landlord because she wears men’s clothes and acts like a man, then the allegations can be discrimination based on gender. Another is if a gay man alleges that his landlord is evicting him because the landlord thinks he will infect the other tenants with his diseases like AIDS, the allegations can be discrimination based on gender and disability.
The HUD also added that they will propose new regulations to clear up the term “family,” as used to describe eligible beneficiaries of HUD’s programs, to now include eligible LGBT individuals and couples. This is to ensure that the most important housing programs are made available to all families, of any sexual orientation and gender identity.
Sexual and gender discrimination is also being combatted by the Federal Housing Administration, who will instruct the FHA’s lending community that their insured mortgage loans must not be based on factors that refer to potential borrowers’ sexual orientation or gender identity, but rather, on their credit-worthiness.
The HUD will also commission the very first national study of discrimination of the LGBT community in housing sales and rentals, and are now looking for online public comment for opinions on how to design the new study.
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