Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Discrimination in Housing

Housing discrimination refers to differential treatment in the sale, rental, financing, or insuring of housing based on race or any of a number of other ascribed characteristics. Housing discrimination, especially on the basis of race and ethnicity, became commonplace in the United States during the first half of the 20th century, and during that period, such discrimination received institutional support from the federal government, from state governments and state courts, and from real estate industry associations. Today, housing discrimination on the basis of race and a number of other characteristics is illegal, but subtler forms of discrimination persist, and housing discrimination has left a continuing legacy of racial housing segregation throughout the United States, as this entry describes.

Forms of Discrimination

Housing discrimination can take a number of forms. In its most flagrant form, it can consist of refusing to rent, sell, finance, or insure housing on the basis of an ascribed characteristic such as race, or telling a person of a disfavored group that a house or apartment is no longer available, but the same unit is later made available to a person of a favored group. Often, however, housing discrimination consists of disparate treatment, that is, offering different prices, rents, interest rates, or terms of sale, rental, financing, or insurance. Often, too, housing discrimination takes the form of steering, that is, directing people to different locations on the basis of characteristics such as race, ethnicity, or familial status (i.e., whether or not they have children).

Since the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, it has been illegal to discriminate in the sale, rental, or financing of housing on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, or national origin. Since the original passage of the law, familial status (pregnancy or having children under the age of 18) and disability have been added as protected categories, that is, characteristics on the basis of which it is illegal to discriminate. The Fair Housing Act, as amended in 1988, also requires that landlords make reasonable accommodations in their policies and services for persons with disabilities, and that they allow such persons, at their own expense, to make reasonable modifications for accessibility in the rental properties. In addition to the federal Fair Housing Act, many states and municipalities have laws against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and some forbid discrimination on the basis of veteran status or legal source of income.

Housing Discrimination before 1968

Although most forms of housing discrimination are against the law today, that was not the case before 1968 in most states. Moreover, as noted earlier, there was widespread governmental and institutional encouragement of housing discrimination throughout much of the first half of the 20th century and, in some cases, even beyond that period. Between the Civil War and the beginning of the 20th century, housing discrimination in U.S. cities was not particularly widespread. Cities were not nearly as segregated by race and ethnicity as they would become later, and in particular, Whites and African Americans often lived together in the same neighborhoods. In general, African Americans faced more discrimination in the workplace than they did when they sought a home.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution