Fair Housing
Everyone Deserves a Safe Space
and Decent Place to Call Home
Our Fair Housing Project investigates and challenges cases of discrimination by housing providers. The Project helps clients resolve fair housing disputes and conducts community legal education on fair housing rights and responsibilities.
What Is Fair Housing?
Fair housing is the right of a person to choose housing free from discrimination. In the housing market, “discrimination” means a practice that limits housing choice because of someone’s particular trait. Only certain traits are protected under the law. Under the federal law, those traits are race, color, religion, gender, national origin, familial status (families with children), and disability. In Illinois, the law protects the same traits as federal law plus ancestry, age, military or military discharge status, marital status, protective order status, pregnancy status, arrest record, sexual orientation, source of income, immigration status, and reproductive choices.
For more information about fair housing, visit Illinois Department of Human Rights: Fair Housing Division.
Who Does the Fair Housing Project Serve?
PSLS serves victims of discrimination throughout our 36-county service area.
Here are some examples of what illegal housing discrimination sounds like:
- “We rent only to English speakers.”
- “No, we cannot allow you to build a ramp for your wheelchair.”
- “I prefer to rent to women.”
- “We don’t allow support animals, unless it is a certified seeing-eye dog.”
- “We don’t offer mortgage loans in that part of town.”
- “The apartment has already been rented (and further investigation reveals that it had not in fact been rented).”
- "We don't accept vouchers."
- "If you have a voucher, you must make three times the rent as income."
Who Must Provide Fair Housing?
With limited exceptions, all housing providers must provide fair housing by law. Housing providers include:
- Building owners/landlords
- Management companies
- Real estate agents
- Home sellers
- Mortgage brokers and companies
- Banks or other lending institutions
- Government agencies
What Does Illegal Housing Discrimination Look Like?
Illegal housing discrimination can take many forms. Some common forms include:
- Statements suggesting that available housing is unavailable
- Refusal to rent or sell or negotiate for housing
- Refusal to make reasonable accommodations or allow reasonable modifications for persons with disabilities
- Refusal to make or provide information about mortgage loans
- Discriminatory terms and conditions
- Discriminatory advertising
- Threats, intimidation, coercion or retaliation
- Sexual harassment
- Housing services that are different from those available to others
How Can We Help?
If you are a victim of housing discrimination, PSLS may:
- Negotiate on your behalf with a landlord or other housing provider.
- Investigate what you think could be housing discrimination through the use of fair housing testing.
- Help you file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development or Illinois Department of Human Rights or in court.
- Represent you in court if you file a complaint.
To contact the Fair Housing Project:
855-FHP-PSLS (855-347-7757)
Resources & Outreach
- Fair Housing Project (English)
- Fair Housing Project (Spanish)
- Fair Housing Project (Tagalog)
- Fair Housing Project (Arabic)
- Lead Paint - How to Identify and Address It (English)
- Lead Paint - How to Identify and Address It (Spanish)
- Lead Paint - How to Identify and Address It (Tagalog)
- Lead Paint - How to Identify and Address It (Arabic)
- Sexual Harassment in Housing (English)
- Sexual Harassment in Housing (Spanish)
- Sexual Harassment in Housing (Tagalog)
- Sexual Harassment in Housing (Arabic)
- Source of Income Discrimination (English)
- Source of Income Discrimination (Spanish)
- Source of Income Discrimination (Tagalog)
- Source of Income Discrimination (Arabic)
PSLS works to raise awareness of fair housing laws that protect individuals against housing discrimination.
We develop and distribute educational materials that describe ways to prevent housing injustices and the applicable laws that protect against discrimination.
We present fair housing workshops for landlords, tenants, nonprofit organizations and government employees. We can create trainings that focus on particular topics within fair housing law.
If you or your organization would like to learn more, please contact the Fair Housing Project at fairhousing@pslegal.org.
Become a Fair Housing Tester
PSLS trains testers to go out on assignments called “tests.” During these tests, our testers play the role of a person seeking an apartment, home, or home loan. Testers might participate in apartment showings, open houses, or other experiences to help us monitor fair housing practices. In this way, we can compare how a particular housing provider treats people with different traits.
Examples: We might compare how a provider treats a White tester compared to an African-American or Hispanic tester. Or, we might compare how a provider treats a person with a disability compared to a tester with no disabilities. We might compare how a provider treats a tester with children compared to a tester who is single. Testers are of vital importance to the advocacy programs of the Fair Housing Project. Without a diverse pool of testers, it would be very difficult to investigate claims of illegal discrimination.
Why Testing?
Courts have consistently supported the testing process as a legitimate and necessary method to identify practices of unlawful housing discrimination. Sometimes testing is the only method by which organizations can uncover subtle discrimination.
How Do I Become a Tester?
If you are interested in taking on the challenging and rewarding role of a tester, you must complete an application. Once the application has been received and reviewed, you will be registered for one of our comprehensive tester training sessions.
Tester Qualifications
- Diversity: We need men and women of all races, ethnic identities and ages.
- Reliability: Once you commit to an assignment, we need your prompt action and follow-through. We work with your schedule.
- Objectivity: We need volunteers who can observe and remember events. Testers do not try to “find” discrimination but merely report objectively what happened during the test.
- Credibility: Testers may need to testify as a witness to a particular test. For this reason, PSLS may in its discretion deny requests to be testers from applicants with certain felony convictions including fraud, perjury or violent crimes.
- Training: We provide a training session and a practice test to all testers before they receive assignments. We provide a small stipend for those testers who successfully complete the training program.
- Technical skills: We prefer volunteers who can use Microsoft Word to document their experiences. We are happy to make exceptions for people with disabilities.
- Transportation: We prefer volunteers who can provide or arrange for their own transportation. We reimburse testers for their mileage or transportation costs.
- Identification: All testers must have state-issued identification.
- Work authorization: All testers must be authorized to work in the United States.
- Payment: We reimburse the testers’ work through small stipends.
Please note that testing is not part-time employment and is not steady work. We assign testers when we need them and as they are available. Also, real estate agents and individuals engaged in the renting or selling of residential property are not eligible to serve as testers.