New HUD Policy Extends Discrimination Protections to Gay and Lesbian Community
Posted January 29, 2012
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U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan will unveil a new HUD policy to fight discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in federally supported housing programs.
The new rules, to be published the week of January 29, aim to help LGBT people and their families to stay in their homes, get loans to buy homes, and access federal assistance programs.
Donovan made the announcement at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change, the country's largest annual gathering of LGBT rights advocates. He is the first sitting Cabinet secretary in history to speak at this conference.
"Each of us here knows that rights most folks take for granted are routinely violated against LGBT people," Donovan said at the conference.
Donovan spotlighted steps HUD has already taken to help protect LGBT people from housing-related discrimination. This work includes protecting LGBT people from discrimination under the Fair Housing Act and collecting data to better understand how same-sex couples suffer housing discrimination.
Donovan then outlined the scope of the new rule, which includes an equal access provision that prohibits owners and operators of HUD-funded housing, or housing insured by HUD, from inquiring about an applicant's sexual orientation or gender identity or denying housing on that basis.
"If you are denying HUD housing to people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity - actual or perceived - you're discriminating, you're breaking the law - and you will be held accountable," said Donovan. "That's what equal access means, and that's what this rule is going to do."
The rule also makes clear that LGBT families are eligible for HUD's public housing and Housing Choice Voucher programs and that sexual orientation and gender identity cannot be part of any lending decision when it comes to getting a mortgage insured by the FHA, which is part of HUD.
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