CW: Discrimination
More than fifty years after the Fair Housing Act was passed, disabled people still experience many challenges in accessing and maintaining housing nationwide. These challenges are the subject of a recent report from Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) in Cincinnati that presents an alarming new picture of a problem deeper than a city or state: discrimination based on someone’s disability is among the most frequent forms of housing discrimination in the country.
The Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. In 1988, Congress expanded the law to include people with disabilities and families with children. Under the law, housing associations, and landlords are required to ensure that accommodations are available for disabled people. Even with such laws in place, advocates and fair-housing organizations continue to document widespread violations. Almost half of HOME’s housing investigations related to disability had found discrimination, according to a recent report. And while the findings are only true for Cincinnati, they mirror a national trend. Disability-related complaints are the largest share of housing discrimination complaints, based on federal fair housing data, annually in the U.S. Most of the issues described in the report are more ordinary — some are minor, but they can cause major problems.
For example, people who receive benefits such as Social Security Disability Insurance can request that the due date of their rent be changed because disability benefits don’t always arrive on the first day of the month. Other people need an accessible parking space. These are often considered reasonable accommodations under the law, but some landlords still refuse to grant them or do not fully understand their legal responsibilities.
The fact that such discrimination occurs underscores the barrier between those protections found in the law, and how many renters are in the rental market. Discrimination is not always intentional. But no matter what a person’s intentions may be, refusal of reasonable accommodations can result in things like housing instability, financial hardship, and decreased access to the community.
The country still struggles with the housing affordability and accessibility issues that the Fair Housing Act has raised and helped to examine. Access to housing should be a priority; disability accommodations are not privileges. More education, enforcement, and awareness can bring the country closer to ensuring equal access to housing for all Americans.
Sources:
Cardile, Daniel F. “Community Housing Trust: A Fair Standard for the Fair Housing Amendments Act.” Journal of Contemporary Health Law & Policy, vol. 21, no. 2, 2005, pp. 205–226. Georgetown Law Scholarly Commons, https://scholarship.law.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1148&context=jchlp.
Griswold, Ben. “Necessary Developments: Calibrating the Fair Housing Act’s Reasonable Accommodation Provision.” University of Chicago Law Review, vol. 92, no. 6, 2025, article 5, https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclrev/vol92/iss6/5/.
Kotkin, Minna J. “The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988: New Strategies for New Procedures.” N.Y.U. Review of Law & Social Change, vol. 17, no. 4, 1989–1990, pp. 755–786, https://socialchangenyu.com/review/fair-housing-amendments-act-of-1988-new-strategies-for-new-procedures-the/.
Swartsell, Nick. “Report Suggests High Level of Disability Discrimination in Greater Cincinnati Rental Housing.” WVXU, 28 May 2026, https://www.wvxu.org/local-news/2026-05-28/disability-discrimination-cincinnati-rental-housing.
“The Federal Fair Housing Requirements: Title VIII of the 1968 Civil Rights Act.” Duke Law Journal, vol. 18, no. 4, 1969, pp. 733–771. Duke Law Scholarship Repository, https://scholarship.law.scholarship.duke.edu/dlj/vol18/iss4/4.