COACH's Pop Quiz!

Q: It’s illegal to refuse to rent to any minority prospects, but you can’t get into fair housing trouble if you bend the truth about available units when they ask about vacancies. True or false?

A: False, subtle forms of discrimination are just as unlawful as blatantly discriminatory practices. Under the FHA, it’s unlawful to provide inaccurate or untrue information about the availability of units for discriminatory reasons, so you may not deny a visit to the rental property by telling a prospect that an available unit has been rented already, or limit information about suitably or comparably priced available units, because of his race or other protected characteristic.

The October 2017 lesson of Fair Housing Coach focuses on the rules banning housing discrimination based on race and color. The fight against racial discrimination and segregation was one of the main reasons that the federal Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968.

Now, nearly 50 years later, the recent events in Charlottesville, Va., and elsewhere make it clear that racial discrimination continues to be a factor in American life. In this lesson, the Coach reviews fair housing requirements and offers seven rules to help your community avoid fair housing trouble based on race or color. The October lesson, “How to Prevent Housing Discrimination Claims Based on Race or Color,” is available to our subscribers here.