April is Fair Housing Awareness Month

The federal Fair Housing Act prevents landlords from discriminating against people based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, age and familial status. To these, the Virginia Fair Housing Act added sources of funds, gender identity, sexual orientation and military status to its protected classes. In addition, The Prince William Human Rights Ordinance adds marital status. Many more different groups are now protected by the enforcement of these three federal, state and local fair housing laws.

April is Fair Housing Awareness Month, focusing on the importance of people taking proactive steps to learn their rights and promoting fair housing practices.

The Human Rights Commission recently passed a resolution declaring, affirming and recognizing the month of April as Fair Housing Month. The resolution notes that individuals in Prince William County, the 10th most diverse county in the nation, have the right to choose where to live without discrimination.

The Prince William County Human Rights Office receives about 50 discrimination complaints yearly. On average, eight of those are fair housing complaints.

"We are responsive to every complaint. All complaints are resolved within one year of filing. People should expect a thorough and impartial investigation," said Human Rights Office Executive Director Raul Torres. "We do not advocate for a respondent or a complainant. We reach our conclusions based on the available evidence. We are a neutral party investigating a complaint that is brought to us based on principles of fair housing laws."

The Human Rights Office always tries to find an alternative resolution to any complaint. It encourages mediation or conciliation before, during or after the investigation.

"The Human Rights Office aims to find a remedy for whoever may have been discriminated. Many of the complaints are settled, meaning that respondents and complainants have reached an agreement," Torres said. "Some of these agreements are monetary. Some of these agreements might be relocation to another apartment or a change in some policy. If we didn't have the settlement process, there would be many more complaints where we found cause. We avoid finding cause by encouraging the parties to reach an agreement."

In addition to investigating and conciliating complaints, the Human Rights Office conducts fair housing testing every year, including sending testers as control applicants and applicants of protected classes to rental offices to determine if discrimination occurs with potential renters.

Examples of housing discrimination might include:

• No children policies.
• Evicting people of color.
• Discrimination against people who need support animals.
• Discrimination against people who use wheelchairs.
• Discrimination against interracial and same-sex couples.
• Refusing to rent because of age.
• Gender discrimination.
• Refusing to rent to people with AIDS.
• Refusing to rent to mentally challenged people.
• Refusing to rent to pregnant women.

The Human Rights Office also has outreach programs, including training and distributing educational material to landlords, tenant associations and other interested parties.

Visit the Human Rights Office at pwcva.gov/humanrights for more information on fair housing laws and ordinances.