HUD

Key Takeaways

• HUD is the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, the federal agency that administers national housing programs and enforces the Fair Housing Act.
• Anyone who has been or will be harmed by a discriminatory housing practice may report it to HUD, and its Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity investigates the allegation.
• Housing discrimination is illegal in nearly all housing, including private housing, public housing, and housing that receives federal funding, so a privately owned listing is inside HUD's reach.
• HUD may disclose an allegation to a state or local fair housing agency that administers a substantially equivalent law; in Washington that law is chapter 49.60 RCW and that agency is the Washington State Human Rights Commission.

What It Means

HUD is the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, the cabinet-level federal agency responsible for national housing programs and for enforcing the Fair Housing Act. For a real estate student, the enforcement role is the one that shows up on the exam and in daily practice.

Inside HUD, the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity receives and investigates housing discrimination allegations. HUD's own guidance is broad about who may complain: anyone who has been or will be harmed by a discriminatory housing practice. That wording carries weight, because a person does not have to wait for a deal to collapse before there is something to report, and the right to report is not limited to the buyer or tenant who was turned away.

Coverage is broad as well. Housing discrimination is illegal in nearly all housing, including private housing, public housing, and housing that receives federal funding. A broker who assumes that fair housing rules bite only on subsidized property has the picture backwards. The protection follows the housing, not the funding source, and a privately owned listing sits squarely inside it alongside a Protected Class analysis that never changes because the seller is a private party.

How It Works in Washington

HUD is federal, so it does not issue Washington licenses and does not write Washington rules. The connection runs the other direction. HUD's reporting process contemplates that an allegation may be disclosed to state or local fair housing agencies that administer substantially equivalent fair housing laws for allegation processing, and Washington has both such a law and such an agency.

The law is the Washington Law Against Discrimination, chapter 49.60 RCW. RCW 49.60.222 makes it an unfair practice to refuse to engage in a real estate transaction, to discriminate in its terms, conditions, or privileges, to refuse to receive or to fail to transmit a bona fide offer, to represent that real property is not available for inspection, sale, or rental when it is in fact available, or to circulate a discriminatory notice, statement, or advertisement. The statute names a longer list of protected characteristics than the federal seven, including marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship or immigration status, and honorably discharged veteran or military status.

The agency is the Washington State Human Rights Commission, created by RCW 49.60.050 and composed of five members appointed by the governor. Under RCW 49.60.230 an aggrieved person may file a complaint with the commission, and where the alleged unfair practice involves a real estate transaction the filing window is one year after the practice occurs or terminates, rather than the six months that applies to most other claims under the chapter.

The practical takeaway for a Washington broker is that two doors are open to a consumer, and conduct that clears one law is not automatically safe under the other. The federal route starts at HUD's report housing discrimination page, and HUD advises reporting promptly because time limits apply.

Example

Rosa applies to rent a two-bedroom unit in a privately owned Tacoma fourplex advertised at $2,150 a month. Her household is herself and her seven-year-old son, and she earns $6,900 a month gross, so the rent is about 31 percent of her income and she clears the building's stated three-times-rent standard with room to spare. The on-site manager tells her the unit is already spoken for, shows it to another applicant that same afternoon, and reposts the advertisement two days later.

Rosa has two routes, and she does not have to pick one on day one. Federally, she can report to HUD, whose guidance says anyone harmed by a discriminatory housing practice may do so. The fact that the fourplex is privately owned and takes no federal money does not put it outside the Fair Housing Act, because housing discrimination is illegal in nearly all housing.

In Washington, the same conduct is an unfair practice under RCW 49.60.222, which specifically covers representing that real property is not available for inspection, sale, or rental when it is in fact available, and which names families with children status among the protected characteristics. Rosa files with the Washington State Human Rights Commission five months after the showing, well inside the one-year window RCW 49.60.230 allows for a real estate transaction. The income arithmetic is what makes the manager's story collapse: $2,150 against $6,900 leaves no qualification explanation to fall back on.

Common Mistakes and Exam Traps

• HUD is a federal agency, not a state licensing authority. In Washington, broker and firm licensing sits with the Department of Licensing under chapter 18.85 RCW, and RCW 18.85.331 makes it unlawful to act as a broker or firm without a license.
• Fair housing complaints are not limited to public or subsidized housing. HUD's guidance is that housing discrimination is illegal in nearly all housing, including private housing.
• HUD enforces the federal Fair Housing Act, while Washington enforcement runs through the Washington State Human Rights Commission under chapter 49.60 RCW, and the two lists of protected characteristics are not identical.
• The Fair Housing Act is the law and HUD is the agency; an answer treating the two as the same thing is confusing an enforcer with a statute.