Fair Housing May Expand

A bill introduced in the House of Representatives by John Conyers (D – Michigan), Jerrold Nadler (D- New York), and Edolphus Towns (D- New York) would expand the protected classes under the Fair Housing laws to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, source of income, or marital status. Another provision of the legislation would be to update the definition of familial status. Another aspect of the bill would seek to provide the U.S. Department of Justice more potential to investigate fair housing and fair lending violations.

This introduced legislation comes just over a month after the National Association of REALTORS© approved a modification to its Code of Ethics that prevents discrimination based upon sexual orientation. There was some discussion at the time of whether the NAR should expand its Code of Ethics to wider protected classes than the government, but ultimately the argument which won out was that the Code of Ethics is supposed to hold REALTORS© to a higher standard. Should this recently introduced legislation become law it will help ensure more equal opportunities for all parties in real estate transactions and absolutely affirm the NAR’s adoption of its recent amendment to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Stephen Woodall

REALTOR, GRI @ Long Realty Company

Stephen has made real estate his full-time career and passion since 2008, primarily specializing in the Foothills & the Northwest Tucson areas of Oro Valley and Marana. He is a multi-million dollar producer, representing both sellers & buyers. Stephen has tremendous experience in new home sales, listing & selling primary residences, listing & selling vacant land, listing & selling luxury homes, investment properties, rentals, and real estate development parcels.