Discrimination Against Children and Families

Videos

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Housing discrimination against parents, grandparents or others with children younger than 18 is unlawful. This includes parents who adopt or foster children. It also includes pregnant women and people who plan to have children.

It is illegal for anyone, including a landlord, realtor, town, or other housing provider, to deny housing or to have different rules about housing because a family has children or plans to have children. It is also unlawful to harass a family in housing because of their minor children.

Any decision to deny or restrict housing that is based on the fact that a family has children is unlawful. This includes rental, sales, mortgage lending, and planning and zoning.

Examples of Illegal Discrimination

Here are some examples of illegal discrimination:

Housing Denied

A landlord says she won’t rent to a parent because she has children.
A realtor refuses to show homes to a family because they have children.
A landlord won’t rent to parents because the landlord thinks the property is unsafe.

Different Rules

A landlord allows outdoor grills, bicycles, and skis but not outdoor toys.
A condominium has a pool. The condo association doesn’t let children use the pool.
A homeowners’ association doesn’t allow children to run around outside.

Common Problems

Here are some common illegal problems that families with children face:

A landlord threatens to evict because the children are too noisy but doesn’t threaten other tenants who make other kinds of noise such as loud televisions or computer games.
A condo association doesn’t want to allow parents with children because the condominium is for “quiet professionals.”
A landlord tells a parent he won’t rent to her because there is lead paint in the building.
A mobile home park is evicting a family with minor children because it wants to change to an elderly mobile home park.
A landlord won’t rent to a parent because the apartment is on a busy street.
A condo association tells a condo owner that they can’t foster children in their home.

Exception

There is only one kind of housing that may lawfully exclude (not allow) children. That is housing that is for people who are 62 years old or older. Every person who lives in this housing must be at least 62 years old. That means that a 60 year old wife cannot live with her 64 year old husband in this housing.

It is easier to set a rule that housing is for people 62 years old or older when it opens. It is hard to change from mixed-age housing to housing for seniors over age 62 without discriminating against people based on age or family status.

Some housing is set aside for people who are aged 55 or older. This housing requires a certain amount of the residents to be at least 55 years old. As long as that amount is met, children and people younger than 55 can live in this kind of housing.

What to Do

If you think you were discriminated against in housing, you have choices for what to do. See our Housing Discrimination: What To Do page.

Discrimination against children and families seriously harms the people who are discriminated against and made to feel unwelcome. But discrimination against children and families affects everyone. It keeps us from living in diverse, inclusive communities.