Fair Housing Act Amendments
The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 added disability and familial status as protected classes under the Fair Housing Act. It requires accessible design in new multi-family housing, prohibits discrimination in the sale or rental of housing, and requires landlords to allow reasonable modifications for tenants with disabilities.
What the law requires
The Fair Housing Act (as amended in 1988) prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, or financing of housing based on disability (as well as race, color, national origin, religion, sex, and familial status). For people with disabilities, the law has three key requirements:
Reasonable modifications: Landlords must allow tenants with disabilities to make reasonable physical modifications to their unit at the tenant's expense (and the tenant may be required to restore the unit at the end of the tenancy). This covers grab bars in bathrooms, ramps at entrances, lowered countertops, and other changes that make a unit accessible. In federally subsidized housing, the landlord — not the tenant — may be required to pay for modifications.
Reasonable accommodations: Landlords must make reasonable changes to rules, policies, practices, or services to accommodate people with disabilities. Common examples: allowing an assistance animal when the building has a "no pets" policy; reserving a parking space closer to the entrance; allowing a family member to serve as a co-signer.
Accessible design and construction: All multi-family housing with 4 or more units built for first occupancy after March 13, 1991 must meet accessibility requirements: at least one accessible entrance, accessible common areas, accessible doors and hallways wide enough for wheelchairs, accessible light switches and outlets, reinforced bathroom walls for grab bars, and usable kitchens and bathrooms for wheelchair users.
The law also covers assistance animals (both service animals and emotional support animals) — landlords must allow them as a reasonable accommodation even in no-pet buildings. The FHA covers emotional support animals in housing even though the ADA does not require them in other settings.
Who it protects
People with physical or mental disabilities, including people who use wheelchairs, people with visual or hearing impairments, people with chronic illness, and people with psychiatric disabilities. The definition of disability is broad, consistent with how it is interpreted under the ADA.
Who must comply
Most housing providers — individual landlords renting more than a few units, property management companies, real estate agents, mortgage lenders, and developers. Owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units where the owner lives in one of them are exempt. Single-family homes sold or rented without a real estate agent by an owner who owns three or fewer properties are also generally exempt.
What it does NOT cover (common misunderstandings)
The FHA does not require existing buildings to be retrofitted to be accessible (only new construction). Reasonable modifications are at the tenant's expense in private housing.
The FHA does not guarantee housing at an accessible price. The law prevents discrimination but does not address the scarcity of accessible affordable housing.
Assistance animal requests can be denied only if the animal poses a direct threat to health or safety or would cause substantial physical damage to property. Landlords can request documentation of a disability-related need for animals that are not obvious service animals (trained dogs for visible disabilities), but they cannot require disclosure of a diagnosis.
How to enforce your rights
File a complaint with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) within one year of the discriminatory act. HUD will investigate; if it finds reasonable cause, the case is heard before an administrative law judge or referred to the Department of Justice. Private lawsuits can also be filed within two years.
Fair housing organizations in most major cities offer free advice and can assist with filing complaints.
Recent updates
HUD issued guidance in 2020 on assistance animals, distinguishing between service animals (ADA definition: trained dogs for specific tasks) and assistance animals under the FHA (broader category including emotional support animals). The guidance addressed fraudulent documentation and set out a two-animal cap as a "reasonable starting point" for multiple assistance animal requests. Litigation continues to refine the boundaries of these requirements.