HUD Announces LGBT Equal Access to Housing Guidelines

WASHINGTON – U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced today new regulations intended to ensure that HUD’s core housing programs are open to all eligible persons, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The final rule, published as Equal Access to Housing in HUD Programs – Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity, makes the following provisions:

• Requires owners and operators of HUD-assisted housing, or housing whose financing is insured by HUD, to make housing available without regard to the sexual orientation or gender identity of an applicant for, or occupant of, the dwelling, whether renter- or owner-occupied.  HUD will institute this policy in its rental assistance and homeownership programs, which include the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance programs, community development programs, and public and assisted housing programs.
• Prohibits lenders from using sexual orientation or gender identity as a basis to determine a borrower’s eligibility for FHA-insured mortgage financing.  FHA’s current regulations provide that a mortgage lender’s determination of the adequacy of a borrower’s income “shall be made in a uniform manner without regard to” specified prohibited grounds.  The rule will add actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity to the prohibited grounds to ensure FHA-approved lenders do not deny or otherwise alter the terms of mortgages on the basis of irrelevant criteria.
• Clarifies that all otherwise eligible families, regardless of marital status, sexual orientation, or gender identity, will have the opportunity to participate in HUD programs. In the majority of HUD’s rental and homeownership programs the term “family” already has a broad scope, and includes a single person and families with or without children.  HUD’s rule clarifies that otherwise eligible families may not be excluded because one or more members of the family may be an LGBT individual, have an LGBT relationship, or be perceived to be such an individual or in such relationship.
• Prohibits owners and operators of HUD-assisted housing or housing insured by HUD from asking about an applicant or occupant’s sexual orientation and gender identity for the purpose of determining eligibility or otherwise making housing available. In response to comments on the proposed rule, HUD has clarified this final rule to state that this provision does not prohibit voluntary and anonymous reporting of sexual orientation or gender identity pursuant to state, local, or federal data collection requirements.

Other actions HUD has taken for LGBT Americans include:

• HUD conducted the first-ever national study of discrimination against members of the LGBT community in the rental and sale of housing.  Every ten years, HUD does a study of the impact of housing discrimination on the basis of race and color.  HUD undertook this important research in 1977, 1989 and 2000 and is currently undertaking this study again. It is believed that LGBT individuals and families may remain silent because in many local jurisdictions, they may have little or no legal recourse. While there are no national assessments of LGBT housing discrimination, there are state and local studies that have shown evidence of this sort of bias. For example, a 2007 report by Michigan’s Fair Housing Centersfound that nearly 30 percent of same-sex couples were treated differently when attempting to buy or rent a home.
• HUD currently requires its recipients of discretionary funds to comply with local and state non-discrimination laws that cover sexual orientation or gender identity.
• In 2011 HUD issued new guidance that treats discrimination based on gender nonconformity or sex stereotyping as sex discrimination under the Fair Housing Act, and instructs HUD staff to inform individuals filing complaints about state and local agencies that have LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination laws.
• The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in rental, sales and lending on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability and familial status. Approximately 20 states, and the District of Columbia, and more than 150 cities, towns and counties across the nation have additional protections that specifically prohibit such discrimination against LGBT individuals. Under the guidance issued in June 2010, HUD will, as appropriate, retain its jurisdiction over complaints filed by LGBT individuals or families but also jointly investigate or refer matters to those state, district and local governments with other legal protections.
• HUD, HHS and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) hosted the first ever federal government summit addressing issues for LGBT seniors in December 2011.

View the final rule here.

This rule ensures that housing assisted or insured by HUD must be made available without regard to actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status. No longer will HUD tolerate the exclusion of families with lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) members from FHA-insured loans, which provided credit last year for over 770,000 homebuyers, or from HUD’s public housing and Housing Choice Voucher programs, which collectively serve 5.5 million people.

With this rule, HUD signals unequivocally that discrimination against LGBT individuals is wrong, and that the government will not allow its imprimatur on this discrimination.

Fifty years ago, in 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 11063, an order representing the first major federal effort to apply civil rights to housing. The order mandated that housing owned, operated, funded, or insured by the federal government be made available without regard to race, color, national origin, or religion.

Six years later, Congress enacted the federal Fair Housing Act, extending these protections to both the public and private housing market.

 The historian Howard Zinn once said, “The future is an infinite succession of presents.” Today, we have HUD’s LGBT Rule. But this is not, and cannot be, the end. We cannot rest until full equality for LGBT individuals is reached and all of us can live free from discrimination.

 So, tomorrow we will be moving forward, building on the work we did today. And we will do it together.

 On behalf of Secretary Shaun Donovan, I thank you for your efforts every day, as we forge on.
Sincerely,