NFHTA Basics of Fair Housing Resources
Overview
The Basics of Fair Housing Course ensures that FHIP and FHAP participants have a foundational framework, which they can build upon to carry out their duties in a professional and proficient manner. These resources complement the curriculum delivered in the course.
Browse All Basics of Fair Housing Resources
Fair Housing Act, as Amended (FHA, FHAA), Sections 801-820: (42 U.S.C. §§ 3601-3619)
The Fair Housing Act (FHA), as amended, sets forth the fair housing policy of the United States. It defines fair housing terminology; details discriminatory housing practices; sets forth the exemptions under the Act; sets out the administrative framework enforcement of the Act and procedures for investigations. The FHA is the basis for all activities to affirmatively further the provisions of the Act.
Date Published: August 2015
Fair Housing Act: Administrative Enforcement and Preliminary Matters (42 U.S.C. § 3610)
Section 810 of the Fair Housing Act provides guidance on the administrative processing of complaints filed under the Act including time limits, the investigative report, the conciliation agreement, prompt judicial action, and reasonable cause determinations.
Date Published: August 2015
HUD FHEO Website: Fair Housing Guidance
The HUD Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) Fair Housing Guidance landing page contains guidance documents from HUD FHEO and joint statements from FHEO and the Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD), and HUD and the Department of Justice (DOJ), fact sheets, policies, and procedures guidance. Information provided on this page provides resources to ensure compliance with fair housing laws, regulations, and policies.
HUD FHEO Website: Fair Housing Policy Statements, Notices & Other Documents
The HUD Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) Policy Statements, Notices & Other Documents landing page is the repository of resources on fair housing policy statements, notices, and guidance documents. Users can browse by topic for training, increasing knowledge, responding to complaints, and conducting investigations.
The Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) Interagency Task Force is a federal initiative to address inequity in home appraisals. The effort examines potential enforcement under fair housing laws, regulatory action, and development of standards and guidance in close partnership with industry and state and local governments, to root out discrimination in the appraisal and homebuying process.
This part describes two types of liability of persons relative for discriminatory housing: Direct liability and vicarious liability.
Date Published: September 2016
HUD's Implementing Regulations: 24 C.F.R., Part 103: Complaint Processing
Part 103 details how someone who believes that they have been discriminated against relative to housing because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, or familial status can report and file a claim. This resource provides additional guidance on complaint processing, referrals, investigative procedures, conciliation, issuances of charge, and prompts judicial action.
Date Published: April 2017
HUD's Implementing Regulations: 24 C.F.R., Part 100: Discriminatory Conduct
These regulations address discriminatory housing practices; discrimination in residential real estate-related transactions; discrimination based on disability; housing for older persons; interference, coercion, or intimidation; and quid pro quo/hostile environment harassment.
Date Published: April 2017
HUD's Implementation of the Disparate Impact Standard: 84 FR 42854
This rule proposes to amend HUD's interpretation of the Fair Housing Act's disparate impact standard to better reflect the Supreme Court's 2015 ruling in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., and to provide clarification regarding the application of the standard to state laws governing the business of insurance.
Date Published: August 2019
Part 115 details the substantial equivalency certification including the certification procedures, performance assessments, and performance standards for Fair Housing Assistance Programs (FHAP) program participants.
Date Published: April 2017
HUD's Implementing Regulations: 24 C.F.R., Part 125: Fair Housing Initiatives Program
Part 125 details the role of a Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) including program administration, application requirements, waivers, and testers. It also describes the major FHIP funding initiatives, including the Administrative Enforcement Initiatives (AEI), Education Outreach Initiatives (EOI), Private Enforcement Initiatives (PEI), and Fair Housing Organization Initiative (FHOI).
Date Published: April 2017
Through this final rule HUD implements policy to ensure that its core programs are open to all eligible individuals and families regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.
Date Published: February 2012
Final Rule: Quid Pro Quo and Hostile Environment Harassment (81 FR 63054)
The final rule specifies how HUD will evaluate complaints of quid pro quo (“this for that”) harassment and hostile environment harassment under the Fair Housing Act. This rule defines “quid pro quo” and “hostile environment harassment,” and provides illustrations of discriminatory housing practices that constitute such harassment.
Date Published: September 2016
Final Rule: HUD's Native American and Native Hawaiian Programs (81 FR 80989)
Through this final rule, HUD revised its Native American and Native Hawaiian program regulations to ensure all eligible individuals and families, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status, have access to these programs.
Date Published: November 2016
HUD Title VIII Handbook: Chapter 2: Theories of Discrimination
This chapter explores the theories of discrimination: disparate treatment cases, disparate impact cases, single motive cases, mixed-motive cases, cases with direct evidence, and indirect evidence. This resource presents the analytical structure and proof necessary to establish or rebut each type of case.
Date Published: November 1998
HUD Title VIII Handbook: Chapter 3: Jurisdiction, Part 1
This chapter explores the requirements of jurisdiction, including timeliness, standing, respondent and dwelling jurisdiction, subject matter, and issue jurisdiction.
Date Published: September 1995
HUD Title VIII Handbook: Chapter 3: Jurisdiction, Part 2
This is the second part of Chapter 3 which explores guidance on prohibited bases and res judicata. The document includes revisions to the complainant and respondent notification letters.
Date Published: September 1995
HUD Title VIII Handbook: Chapter 4: Intake
This chapter provides guidance to staff involved in the complaint intake process and covers the responsibilities of staff who perform intake, including how to collect and review complaint information, interview aggrieved persons, perfect complaints, and recognize complaints that require special processing.
Date Published: May 2005
HUD Title VIII Handbook: Chapter 4, Section 14: Complaint Intake (First Amendment)
Section 4-14 of the chapter on complaint intake will assist intake staff in identifying cases that require processing under the First Amendment, and the procedures for processing inquiries that may invoice protected speech.
Date Published: May 2005
HUD Title VIII Handbook: Chapter 8: Analysis of Specific Cases
This chapter explores unique legal and/or evidentiary issues that set them apart from more traditional housing discrimination cases. Examples and processes for investigations cover the following situations: harassment based on race, color, or national origin, sexual harassment, retaliation, mortgage lending discrimination, disability discrimination, reasonable accommodations, reasonable modifications and accessibility standards, and zoning and other land-use cases.
Date Published: November 1998
HUD Memorandum: Assessing Claims of Housing Discrimination Under VAWA
This memorandum provides guidance to Office of Fair Housing and Equal (FHEO) staff on assessing claims by domestic violence victims under the Fair Housing Act. This memorandum discusses the legal theories and examples of recent cases. It also explains how the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) protects some domestic violence victims from eviction, denial of housing, or termination of assistance on the basis of the violence perpetrated by their abusers.
Date Published: February 2011
HUD Notice FHEO-2015-01: Limitations on Filing Complaints That May Implicate the First Amendment
This notice provides guidance for handling complaints from to those, such as neighbors, who are not directly participating in a real estate transaction, but who have possibly been involved with coercing, intimidating, threatening, or interfering with any person in the "exercise off enjoyment" of rights protected under the Fair Housing Act.
Date Published: May 2015
HUD Memorandum: Elements of Proof
This memorandum provides guidance in identifying the proper elements of proof/prima facie case elements when investigating Fair Housing Act complaints and writing determinations of both reasonable cause and no reasonable cause. It presents two possible frameworks: (1) McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting approach starting with a prima facie case analysis, or (2) a direct evidence analysis.
Date Published: September 2018
HUD Notice FHEO-2020-1: Assessing a Request to Have an Animal as a Reasonable Accommodation
This notice explains certain obligations of housing providers under the Fair Housing Act (FHA) with respect to animals that individuals with disabilities may request as reasonable accommodations.
Date Published: January 2020
HUD Memorandum: Handling Allegations of Internet-Based Discriminatory Advertising
This memorandum sets forth guidance for processing allegations of discriminatory advertisements on Craigslist or other interactive computer services against unidentified parties.
Date Published: March 2009
DOJ Policy Guidance and Q&A: Enforcement of Title VI: National Origin Discrimination
This guidance clarifies the existing Title VI on the prohibition on National Origin discrimination when information is provided only in English to persons with limited English proficiency (LEP). The purpose of this document is to set forth general principles for agencies to apply in developing guidelines for services to individuals with LEP.
Date Published: August 2000
HUD/DOJ Joint Statement: Reasonable Accommodations
This joint statement provides technical assistance regarding the rights and obligations of persons with disabilities and housing providers under the Act relating to reasonable accommodations. This statement addresses 19 key questions that arise in reasonable accommodations cases and provides examples and approaches to resolving these cases.
Date Published: May 2004
HUD/DOJ Joint Statement: Reasonable Modifications
This joint statement provides technical assistance regarding the rights and obligations of persons with disabilities and housing providers relating to reasonable modifications. This statement addresses 19 key questions that arise in reasonable modification cases and provides examples and approaches to resolving these cases.
Date Published: March 2008
HUD/DOJ Joint Statement and Q&A: State and Local Use Laws and Practices
This joint statement from HUD and the Department of Justice (DOJ) provides an overview of the Fair Housing Act’s requirements relating to state and local land use practices and zoning laws, including conduct related to group homes, reasonable accommodations, and the handling of such complaints.
Date Published: November 2016
HUD/DOJ Joint Statement and Q&A: Group Homes and Local Land Use
This joint statement from HUD and the Department of Justice (DOJ) focuses on the Fair Housing Act and how it prohibits state and local governments from adopting or implementing land use and zoning practices that discriminate based on a protected characteristic.
Date Published: May 2022
Occupancy Standards (Keating Memorandum): 63 FR 70982
This statement of policy presents the factors to be considered when evaluating a housing provider’s occupancy policies to determine whether actions under the provider’s policies may constitute discriminatory conduct under the Fair Housing Act on the basis of familial status.
Date Published: December 1998
Implementation of the Housing for Older Persons Act of 1995 - Q&A
This document addresses questions about the Implementation of the Housing for Older Persons Act's (HOPA) provisions exempting "senior" housing from the prohibition against familial status discrimination. This includes occupants 55 years of age, marketing to that group, survivorship, under-age adults, etc.
Date Published: May 1999
The Communication Decency Act 47 U.S.C. § 230 (c) (1)
This section of the Communication Decency Act (CDA) says an “interactive computer service” cannot be treated as the publisher or speaker of third-party content. This protects websites from lawsuits if a user posts something illegal, although there are exceptions for copyright violations, sex work-related material, and violations of federal criminal law.
Date Published: April 2018
Fact Sheet: HUD's Assistance Animals Notice
The notice addresses two common issues related to an assistance animal: 1. clarification of an assistance animal versus a pet; 2. guidance on documenting an individual's need for an assistance animal in housing.
Date Published: January 2020
This Executive Order, signed by President Biden on January 20, 2021, requires all federal agencies to extend existing protections on the basis of sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
Date Published: January 2021
Implementation of Executive Order 13988 on the Enforcement of the Fair Housing Act
In response to Executive Order 13988, which requires all federal agencies to extend existing protections on the basis of sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity, this memorandum directs actions by HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opporunity (FHEO) and HUD-funded fair housing partners to enforce the Fair Housing Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.
Date Published: February 2021
This resource outlines the Biden-Harris Administration’s agenda to take steps to address racial discrimination in the housing market, including the launch of an Interagency effort to address inequity in home appraisals.
Date Published: June 2021
This memorandum, issued by President Biden, directs HUD to review the “Preserving Community and Neighborhood Choice” rule, went into effect on August 7, 2020, and replaced HUD’s 2015 “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” regulation. The memorandum also directs HUD to examine the disparate impact, which makes substantial changes to the requirements for proving certain types of housing discrimination cases.
Date Published: May 2022