What is Fair Housing?
What practices are protect under the law?
What if I've been discriminated against?
What does housing discrimination look like?
How does housing discrimination feel?
What you can do about housing discrimination?
Fair Housing means you may freely choose a place to live without regard to race, sex, religion, handicap, familial status (having one or more children), age, or national origin. Fair Housing is a right protected by federal, state and local laws. Housing discrimination is against the law.
Return to Fair Housing Topics
What Practices are Protected Under the Law?
Refusal to sell, rent or lease because of race, sex, religion, handicap, familial status, age, or national origin. Discriminatory advertising, terms or conditions in providing services in connection with the sale or rental of housing. Blockbusting or frightening people into moving out of a neighborhood, is also illegal.
Return to Fair Housing Topics
What If I've Been Discriminated Against?
Contact the Garland Fair Housing Office at 972.205.3300 or visit us at 210 Carver Street, Suite 102A, Garland, TX, 75040
Return to Fair Housing Topics
What does housing discrimination look like?
You know what housing discrimination looks like.
Based upon your race, color, national origin, religion, age, sex, handicap or family size:
No one can refuse to rent, sell or negotiate housing with you.
No one can set different terms or conditions for the sale or rental of a dwelling.
No one can refuse to make a mortgage load.
No one can refuse to let you make reasonable modifications to a dwelling to accommodate you handicap.
No one can threaten or intimidate you for exercising your right to fair housing or assisting others to exercise their right.
Return to Fair Housing Topics
How does housing discrimination feel?
You wanted to rent an apartment. You looked for a house in a particular neighborhood. You applied for a home mortgage.
And you were denied. Turned down. Offered different terms. Discouraged. Directed to another part of town. Told that you were too late, too soon, too old, had too many children.
You heard all kinds of reasons. You may have even believed what you heard. But, inside, you knew something was wrong. It wasn't fair.
You knew that you could afford the new home, but you felt like you were rejected because of your ethnicity. Or age. Or handicap. Or the size of your family. Or your religious attire. Or skin color. Or because you were a single parent.
If so, you know what it feels like to be denied housing for no other reason than who you are or what you look like. What you may not know is that in the United States housing discrimination is against the law.
Return to Fair Housing Topics
What you can do about housing discrimination?
The first thing you need to do is to decide to do something about it. By remaining silent, you lose and the lawbreakers win. By accepting their discrimination, they continue to discriminate against others.
The City of Garland has trained staff to help you when you have experienced unfair treatment while trying to rent or buy housing.
If you or those you care about have been discriminated against by unfair housing practices, the law-breakers can be stopped. Bilingual services are available in Spanish, English, Vietnamese, Portuguese and Chinese. For more information, please call us at 972.205.3300.
Office of Fair Housing
210 Carver Street, Suite 102A
Garland, TX 75040
Return to Fair Housing Topics
It's Only Fair and It's The Law.