Fair Housing

Fair housing is an issue of growing concern in Burlington. The City's population is increasingly diverse, and regional market conditions have had an increasingly significant effect on fair housing choice both within the City and within the surrounding region.  Recent studies have shown significant discrimination in both housing sales and rental opportunities.

What is Fair Housing?

“Fair housing” is a term that comes from Title VIII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1968, known as the “Fair Housing Act.” The Fair Housing Act provides substantial remedies to many persons who are the victims of housing discrimination. The Fair Housing Act, as subsequently amended, prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of dwellings, and in other housing-related transactions, based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (including children under the age of 18 living with parents of legal custodians, pregnant women, and people securing custody of children under the age of 18), and handicap (disability). In addition, Vermont provides even greater protection, adding the protected categories of sexual orientation, age, marital status, and receipt of public assistance.

Taken together, these state and federal legal protections prohibit unequal or unfair treatment in housing advertisement, rental of housing, housing sales, financing and insuring of housing or in terms or conditions contained in lease agreements or rules - written or verbal.

For more information, or if you think you have been discriminated against, contact:

Page last updated July 6, 2004