by Rex Wockner
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced June 7 that it will require applicants for HUD funding to comply with state and local anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT people.
"We're using every avenue to shut the door against discrimination," said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.
"Today, we take an important step to insist that those who seek federal funding must demonstrate that they are meeting local and state civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity."
Last October, Donovan announced a series of measures to ensure that the agency's core housing programs are open to all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. In addition to last week's anti-discrimination notice, HUD announced its intent to propose new regulations that will clarify that the term "family" as used to describe eligible beneficiaries of HUD's programs include otherwise eligible LGBT individuals and couples.
The Federal Housing Administration will also instruct its lending community that FHA-insured mortgage loans must be based on the credit-worthiness of borrowers and not on unrelated factors or characteristics such as sexual orientation or gender identity.
Finally, HUD announced plans to commission the first-ever national study of discrimination against members of the LGBT community in the rental and sale of housing. The department is currently seeking online public comment on how it might design this new study.
As part of their new policies on anti-LGBT discrimination, HUD also announced that they will provide enhanced customer services for members of the public who bring fair housing complaints to the department's attention on the basis of LGBT status. Specifically, in places where state or local laws already prohibit LGBT-related housing discrimination, intake staff in HUD's Office of Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity will ensure these complaints are directed to the appropriate state and local anti-discrimination offices. HUD intake staff also will be trained to identify any allegations over which HUD has existing authority under the Fair Housing Act, such as HIV/AIDS-related discrimination.
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, and 12 states and the District of Columbia protect transgender people. At least 373 counties, cities and towns ban anti-gay discrimination and 132 of them also ban anti-trans discrimination, according to data accumulated by the Human Rights Campaign.
