Each year, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) collects fair housing data from various sources, including federal and local agencies, private organizations, and more. The NFHA combines this data into useful, intriguing at times, information that provides some insight into this difficult, but important area of focus. For the year 2013, the agency collected data from 97 private, nonprofit fair housing agencies and legal services organizations. Governmental agencies, such as HUD, DOJ, and FHAP also contributed to this annual report.

The data from the report provides a wide range of information. It includes complaints about rental housing, homeowners insurance, mortgage lending, harassment, advertising, and zoning. The facts are below.

The Investigation

Prior to getting into those details, consider the reporting and investigating aspects of housing organizations. About 69 percent of complaints were investigated by private hair housing organizations. This is about twice as many as government agencies. Private fair housing organizations have about 5 people, according to the report, on staff. These groups work well because of their extensive knowledge of the local area and they are able to educate their local service areas about the rights of the consumer for fair housing.

The report provides us with a glimpse of the discrimination that occurs throughout the United States in the housing market. What's more important to note is that, while we have this data with clear information to work on, most instances of discrimination go unreported. Many people don't report it because they can't identify it or don't know where to go for help. Some fear the consequences of reporting. Often times, the reporting of a single complaint can have a ripple effect, where the problem is often impacting far more than just one person at the location or locations.

The Numbers

In 2013, the level of complaints received was about the same and were steady throughout the industry. They were slightly below 2012 levels, but above 2011 levels.

  • Private fair housing received more complaints in real estate sales and home insurances.
  •  Private groups had fewer complaints about discrimination in rental and mortgage lending.
  •  Organizations saw an increase in racial and disability-based complaints.
  • HD saw fewer complaints of discrimination but a spike of nearly 30 percent in residential mortgage market complaints.
  • FHAP agencies saw a drop in each category except homeowners insurance.
  • The DOJ filed 43 cases, which was up by 36 cases from the previous year and received 1200 complaints.


When it comes to identifying the protected class of discrimination, disability received the most complaints, with race and national origin coming in behind them. Other areas of concern include familial status, sex, religion, color, and other.

  • Disability-based complaints were 48 percent for NFHA members, 53.5 percent of all complaints from HUD, 52.8 percent of complaints from FHAPs, and 43 percent from DOJ.
  • Race was secondary in complaints with 19 percent of all NFHA member complaint stemming from this area. Race accounts for 26.8 percent of all HUD claims, 28.3 percent of FHAPs, and 40 percent of DOJ complaints.


Disability complaints remain high for various reasons. For example, many come from apartment communities or other buildings in which the owner or management agent make direct comments refusing to make reasonable accommodations or changes to allow for people with disabilities to use these locations. It is easier, in these cases, to detect discrimination towards disability than, for example, to detect racial concerns. Another reason for the high number of complaints in this area is because, even though organizations have put together educational initiatives to do so, like the Fair Housing Accessibility FIRST campaign, builders and architects continue to build buildings that lack important features for people with disabilities.

New Reporting on State and Local Laws

The report began collecting data from local and state agencies on discrimination classes not listed as federally protected. These are local and state classes and their reporting for the year:

  • Complaints about income: 527 (down from the previous year)
  • Complaints about sexual orientation: 268 (up for the second year
  • Complaints about age: 200 (down from previous year)
  • Complaints about marital status: 113 (down slightly from previous year)
  • Complaints about gender identity and expression: 27 (down from previous year)


Additional complaints in these state and local classes including those based on physical appearance, criminal background, domestic violence, student status, and others.

The Report's Findings

With all of this information available, it is important to break down this information to apply it to daily life working in the industry. Here are some important factors to consider.

Reports indicate that about 27,352 complaints were received in 2013. This number is steady compared to recent years. However, according to the US Department of HUD, this number represents only an estimated 1 percent of the 4 million instances of discrimination that happen every single year on properties.

In response to these complaints, HUD initiated twice the number of complaints in 2013 as it did in 2012. This shows the increased effort to investigate these areas of discrimination. It also put its focus on there areas:

  • Disability discrimination
  • Disparate impact
  • Promotion of residential diversity


The Department of Justice put focus on fair lending discrimination, sexual harassment against female tenants, and other areas of discrimination.

Take a look at some of the specifics the report shows us are common problems in today's industry:

  • Many complaints have to do with advertising. For example, ads may read "no kids" or "no service animals." These types of discriminations have increased, according to the report, by 52 percent.
  • Complaints in the area of real estate sales, which include race, discrimination, and many other factors, saw an increase of about 19 percent.
  • Another area of focus is in homeowner's insurance. In this area, discrimination complaints jumped by a huge 59 percent in the 2013 year.


This information provides us with a clear insight into areas of specific concern. It also provides an avenue for better advertising and communication within the industry.

The highest level of discrimination continues to take place in regions where there is the most segregated metro areas. While this may seem like a very difficult challenge to fix, it is a focus of HUD to improve this level of segregation among people in all areas of classes. Calls for increased funding for monitoring these complaints was also noted in the reports.