The Fair Housing Act is already the law.

HUD’s own overview is the primary source: the Act prohibits discrimination when you rent, buy, get a mortgage, seek housing assistance, or take other housing-related actions. It applies to nearly all housing, including private rentals, public housing, and federally assisted housing.

The seven federal protected classes, as HUD publishes them, are race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. States and cities often add more — source of income, sexual orientation, gender identity, immigration status, or age. Those extras live in state or local law, not in the federal Act. Confirm the extra classes where you live on your state page or with a local fair-housing organization.

Familial status means households with children under 18, and pregnancy. Disability includes a request for a reasonable accommodation or a reasonable modification. Sex, as HUD currently describes it, includes sexual harassment in housing. We do not paraphrase HUD’s enforcement priorities beyond what that page says today — open the official overview when you need the current language.

It is not a national rent cap. It is not a just-cause eviction statute. It is not a security-deposit deadline. Those are state and city questions. Mixing them with fair housing is how bad advice starts.

It is not the National Tenants Bill of Rights. That document is a campaign published by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. When it says “when enacted,” it is telling you it is not yet federal law. The Fair Housing Act already is.

It is not a substitute for an eviction defense. A discriminatory eviction can be both a fair-housing complaint and a court case. File both doors if both apply. HUD does not appear in Housing Court for you.

HUD publishes the complaint form at hud.gov/reporthousingdiscrimination. That is the official federal door. Keep dates, names, what was said, ads, texts, and the address. A pattern is easier to describe than a feeling.

Many regions also have a local fair-housing organization that will take the intake, in more languages, and may investigate under both federal and local law. In Los Angeles, the Housing Rights Center is one such organization. In Oregon, the Fair Housing Council of Oregon is one. They are not HUD, and they are not this site.

1. 1

   Write what happened

   Date, time, who said or did it, the address, and any witness. Save the listing, the texts, and the denial.

2. 2

   Open HUD’s complaint page

   hud.gov/reporthousingdiscrimination is the federal form. Do not pay anyone to file it.

3. 3

   Call a local fair-housing group if you have one

   They often take the same facts under a local ordinance that covers classes the federal Act does not.

4. 4

   If a court date is also on the paper

   Fair housing does not pause an eviction case. Call legal aid the same day.

HUD is the federal enforcer of the Fair Housing Act. A local fair-housing nonprofit (Housing Rights Center in Los Angeles; Fair Housing Council of Oregon in Oregon) investigates discrimination and sometimes litigates. A city housing department (LAHD in Los Angeles) administers rent ordinances and code. Legal aid and Stay Housed LA handle possession cases. Calling the wrong one wastes the day you may not have.

If the harm is “they will not rent to me because of who I am,” start with HUD or a fair-housing group. If the harm is “they filed in court,” start with legal aid. If the harm is “the unit is not livable,” start with the city inspector. You can walk more than one door.