Fair Housing and Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King - Build Your Nest. Build Your Nest Egg.

Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy is as important as ever this year. As much a part as members of the real estate industry played in enforcing segregation and thus contributing to racial inequality in housing, real estate agents are now responsible for knowing and following applicable provisions of the Fair Housing Act. While it would be amazng if agents and lenders had the power to undo what years of housing discrimination did, what we’re required to do is know who protected classes are and not do anything that continues or supports housing discrimination against protected classes. The Fair Housing Act currently protects people from housing discrimination based on race or class, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability.

How is this connected to honoring Dr. Martin Luther King? While the Civil Rights Movement is still ongoing and his legacy is much larger than any one law, the Federal Fair Housing Act was passed within a week of his assassination by a federal government desperate to respond to a nation in crisis.

Amending the Civil Rights Act

Following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, housing discrimination stood out as a large piece of the system that perpetuated inequality. The amendment to the Civil Rights Act that became the Fair Housing Act was introduced on January 17th, 1967 and passed separately by both the House (August 1967) and Senate (March 1968). Then it was stuck in the House Rules Committee. People didn’t imagine it would make it out. While the majority of the House and Senate were in favor, the House Rules Committee could prevent laws that were supported by the majority from ever making it out of committee and becoming law. Many were hoping to amend it in ways that made it less powerful and/or delay it from ever getting another vote.

After the unrest following Dr. King’s assassination on the evening of April 4, 1968, our federal government was desperate to show the American Public that it was responding, The House passed the Fair Housing Act on April 10, 1968 and President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed it on April 11, 1968. Its passage was seen as both a way to show the country that the government was acting in response to the assassination and taking the Civil Rights Movement seriously. That said, it came after years of hard work.

Why Housing?

To me it stands out that housing is the focus of both discrimination and inequality while also being the place to undo some of the damage that housing discrimination has done. Since I first went to real estate school and got my license in 2003, Fair Housing guidelines have been a part of licensure and continuing education. Housing testers are a known entity, and funny stories about realizing you’re being tested are fun to share. However, more than ensuring that you’re not setting yourself for a complaint by how you describe a location, the larger system that perpetuates housing discrimination is entrenched in our country. Seeing it and working against it are the true goals.

Latest Attempt to Weaken the Fair Housing Act

The fight to weaken it is as old as the Fair Housing Act itself. The latest large scale example is the current proposed HUD rule change to remove disparate impacts. Intead of showing that a policy or action results in housing discrimination, people would be required to show that the housing providers intended to discriminate. Many are worried that would make the Fair Housing Act almost impossible to enforce since it would be a small minority of people who would publicly share that they are planning to discriminate. There is still time to comment on the proposed HUD rule change.