HUD Marks Fair Housing Month 2015 with National Media Campaign

This April, HUD kicked off Fair Housing Month 2015 with the launch of a new national media campaign to alert the public about housing discrimination and what they should do if they believe their housing rights have been violated.

The new campaign was launched as the nation celebrates the 47th anniversary of the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, the landmark law that was passed one week after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The campaign is being conducted in partnership with the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and includes print and digital public service announcements in various languages, webinars, training presentations, brochures, online videos, and social media outreach.

“Every American deserves a fair chance to secure safe and stable housing,” HUD Secretary Julián Castro said in a statement. “At the core of everything we do to improve housing opportunities is a firm belief that no family should ever be denied the opportunity to own or rent a home because of what they look like, where they come from, how they get around, how they speak, who they love, and other circumstances of life. HUD’s fair housing efforts level the playing field so that folks have a solid foundation upon which they can achieve their dreams and build for the future.”

Last year, HUD and its fair housing partner agencies received 8,468 complaints alleging discrimination based on one or more of the law’s seven protected classes: race, color, national origin, religion, gender, family status, and disability. During that period, the categories with the highest number of complaints were disability and race, respectively. 

Source: HUD