What Are the 7 Protected Classes Under the Fair Housing Act?

The Fair Housing Act protects seven classes from discrimination in housing: race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, and disability. Any housing provider who refuses to sell, rent, or negotiate with someone because of one of these characteristics violates federal law.¹ The protections reach almost every stage of a housing transaction, from advertising through lease terms and mortgage financing, and they apply nationwide.

Race, Color, Religion, and National Origin

Congress enacted the Fair Housing Act in 1968 as Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act. The original law prohibited discrimination on four grounds: race, color, religion, and national origin.¹

A landlord cannot refuse to rent because of a tenant’s ethnic background, skin color, or religious practices. A seller cannot reject a legitimate offer because of the buyer’s country of origin. Giving different information about availability, charging higher security deposits, or offering less favorable lease terms based on any of these characteristics all violate the law.

Sex

Congress added sex as a fifth protected class through a 1974 amendment.¹ The protection covers sexual harassment by landlords and property managers as well as outright refusal to rent or sell based on sex.

Whether sex discrimination in housing covers sexual orientation and gender identity is unsettled. In 2020, the Supreme Court held in Bostock v. Clayton County that firing someone for being gay or transgender is sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, reasoning that discrimination based on sexual orientation or transgender status necessarily takes sex into account.² HUD issued a 2021 memorandum applying that reasoning to the Fair Housing Act. HUD withdrew that memorandum in September 2025, and the agency is no longer enforcing the Act on that basis. Bostock itself remains in force, and federal courts may still apply its reasoning to housing claims. State and local laws in many jurisdictions offer their own explicit protections.

Familial Status

The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 added familial status as a sixth protected class. The law defines familial status as having one or more children under 18 living in the household, whether the adult is a parent, legal guardian, or someone with written permission from a parent or guardian. Pregnancy and being in the process of gaining legal custody of a child are also covered.³

A landlord cannot refuse to rent to families with children, steer them toward certain buildings or floors, or impose different rules on households with minors. Advertising a property as “adults only” or “no children” generally violates the Act.

Housing for Older Persons

Communities that qualify as housing for older persons are exempt from the familial status rules. One category covers communities intended for residents 55 and older: at least 80 percent of occupied units must have at least one resident who is 55 or older, and the community must publish and follow policies showing its intent to operate as 55-and-older housing.⁴ A separate category covers housing where every unit is occupied by someone 62 or older. A community meeting either standard can lawfully exclude families with children.⁵

Disability

The 1988 amendments also added disability as the seventh protected class. The law covers anyone with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. That broad definition sweeps in chronic illnesses, mobility limitations, and psychological conditions, among many others. Housing providers cannot refuse to rent or sell because of a disability, and cannot impose different terms or conditions.¹

Reasonable Accommodations

A housing provider must grant reasonable accommodations, meaning changes to rules, policies, or services that give a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a home. A landlord with a no-pets policy must allow an assistance animal for a tenant who has a disability-related need for one. A reserved parking spot near the entrance for a tenant with a mobility impairment is another common example.

Reasonable Modifications

Tenants with disabilities also have the right to make reasonable physical changes to the property: installing grab bars, widening doorways, or adding a ramp. In private, non-federally-funded housing, the tenant generally pays. The landlord can require, when reasonable, that the tenant restore the interior of the unit at move-out, minus normal wear and tear. A landlord cannot unreasonably refuse either an accommodation or a modification.

Assistance Animals

An assistance animal is not a pet. It is an animal that works, provides assistance, performs tasks, or provides emotional support that alleviates the effects of a person’s disability. Because assistance animals are treated as a reasonable accommodation, pet restrictions, breed bans, weight limits, and pet fees and deposits do not apply.⁶

A housing provider may deny an assistance-animal request only in limited situations: when granting it would impose an unreasonable financial or administrative burden, when it would fundamentally alter the provider’s operations, when the specific animal poses a direct threat to others’ health or safety that no other accommodation can eliminate, or when the specific animal would cause significant property damage that no other accommodation can prevent. If the disability and the need for the animal are not obvious, the provider may request reliable documentation, but cannot demand detailed medical records or a specific diagnosis.

Who Has to Follow the Act

The Act covers most residential dwellings in the United States, including apartments, condominiums, single-family homes, and government-subsidized housing. It reaches well beyond landlords to anyone involved in a residential housing transaction:

Mortgage lenders cannot use protected characteristics to deny a loan or set higher interest rates.
Real estate agents and brokers cannot steer buyers toward or away from neighborhoods based on protected-class status, and cannot misrepresent that a home is unavailable.
Homeowners’ associations must make sure their rules and enforcement do not target protected groups.
Insurance companies cannot use protected characteristics to set coverage terms or premiums for homeowners’ or renters’ insurance.

Exemptions

A few narrow exemptions exist, but they do not give blanket immunity from all civil rights laws.

An owner-occupied building with no more than four units, sometimes called the Mrs. Murphy exemption, is exempt from most of the Act’s requirements.⁷ A single-family home sold or rented by the owner may also be exempt, but only if the owner holds no more than three such homes at a time and uses no real estate broker or agent in the transaction. If the owner was not the most recent occupant, the exemption applies to only one sale within any 24-month period.

A religious organization may limit the sale, rental, or occupancy of housing it owns or operates to members of the same religion, but only if the housing is not run for a commercial purpose and membership in the religion is not restricted based on race, color, or national origin. A private club that is not open to the public may likewise limit lodgings to its members if it is not a commercial operation.⁴

Even when an exemption applies, no housing provider may publish advertising that indicates a preference or limitation based on a protected class. That ban applies to everyone.

Race discrimination has an additional backstop. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 guarantees all citizens the same property rights, including the right to buy, sell, lease, and hold real estate, regardless of race. That law has no exemptions for small landlords, owner-occupied buildings, or private sales.⁸

State and Local Protections

Many states and localities go beyond the seven federal classes. Common additions include age, marital status, military or veteran status, source of income, and citizenship status. Some jurisdictions explicitly protect sexual orientation and gender identity through their own fair housing statutes. Because these protections vary by location, check your state and local laws for the full set that applies where you live.

If You Think You’ve Been Discriminated Against

You have two federal paths, and you can use one or both. You can file an administrative complaint with HUD within one year of the last discriminatory act, through its online portal, by phone, by email, or by mail.⁹ HUD investigates, often attempts a voluntary settlement through conciliation, and can refer cases to an administrative hearing where a judge can order damages and civil penalties.

You can also file a private lawsuit in federal or state court within two years of the most recent discriminatory act. Time HUD spent processing a complaint does not count toward that two-year deadline. A court that finds discrimination can award actual damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, and reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.¹⁰ Punitive damages in a private lawsuit have no statutory cap under the Fair Housing Act, which can matter for serious violations.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 3604 – Discrimination in the Sale or Rental of Housing and Other Prohibited Practices
2
Supreme Court of the United States. Bostock v. Clayton County, 590 U.S. 644 (2020)
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC Ch. 45 – Fair Housing – Section 3602 Definitions
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 3607 – Religious Organization or Private Club Exemption
5
eCFR. 24 CFR Part 100, Subpart E – Housing for Older Persons
6
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Assistance Animals
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 3603 – Effective Dates of Certain Prohibitions
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1982 – Property Rights of Citizens
9
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Learn About FHEO’s Process to Report and Investigate Housing Discrimination
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 3613 – Enforcement by Private Persons