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Look at your watch and count off 60 seconds. If the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) averages hold true, by the time you’re done, 20 people in the U.S. will have suffered physical abuse at the hands of an intimate partner. What people do to each other in their own homes is directly relevant to you if you’re in the business of renting housing. That’s because, of the more than 10 million cases of domestic violence reported each year, 77 percent occur in or near the victim’s home.
We all know that it’s illegal for landlords to demand sexual favors or otherwise sexually harass their tenants. But it still happens all the time. And given the inherent imbalance in economic power between landlords and tenants, it’s a problem that’s unlikely to go away any time soon, especially not in low-income communities and especially during times of pandemic where so many tenants lack the wherewithal to pay their rent each month.
In this month’s lesson, the Coach reviews fair housing rules banning discrimination based on sex. While the basic rules prevent you from giving preferential treatment to either men or women because of their gender, the law has evolved to outlaw a broad range of discriminatory practices based on sex.
This month’s lesson focuses on a tough problem: sexual harassment. You might be familiar with rules banning sexual harassment of employees in the workplace, but there are similar rules banning sexual harassment of prospects, applicants, and residents of multifamily housing communities.
This month, Fair Housing Coach reviews issues related to domestic violence. It’s a prevalent public safety problem affecting millions of Americans each year—and a thorny legal issue for multifamily property owners and managers caught in the middle of their residents’ domestic problems.
In this special issue of Fair Housing Coach, we’ll review recent legal developments related to sexual orientation and gender identity—and same-sex marriage. Although federal law doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage, or ban housing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in conventional housing communities, there have been many recent developments involving both issues in the political, regulatory, legislative, and judicial arenas.
This month's issue reviews the fair housing provisions banning discrimination based on sex. The law, originally aimed at practices that foreclosed opportunities for women to buy or rent homes, has evolved to encompass a broad array of discriminatory practices. For example, courts have recognized that the rules protect men, as well as women, in finding owners liable for denying housing to male applicants on the assumption that they were more likely to damage the property or host loud parties than female residents.
This month, we tackle a difficult problem—what to do if domestic violence affects your community. If you haven't already been confronted with this problem, it's likely that you will be because of the staggering number of domestic violence incidents that occur each year in the United States. As Attorney General Eric Holder recently observed, “We know domestic violence is an epidemic that affects communities across this country regardless of age, race, or socio-economic background.”
This month's issue of Fair Housing Coach focuses on avoiding discrimination claims based on sexual orientation. Federal fair housing law does not ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, but many fair housing experts believe that the federal law may be amended to include sexual orientation in coming years.
Meanwhile, many communities are subject to state, county, and municipal laws protecting sexual orientation. And many more may be covered this year as state and local lawmakers around the country weigh measures to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.
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