Feds Beef Up LGBT Senior Protections

Via White House press release:

As part of the White House Conference on Aging today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued guidance to better serve and help avoid discrimination to LGBT Americans seeking HUD-assisted or HUD-insured housing. The guidance will help clarify the Equal Access to Housing in HUD Programs Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity Rule (Equal Access Rule), which was originally published in 2012. The Equal Access Rule ensures that housing across HUD programs is open to all eligible individuals regardless of actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status, including Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly. “Every American deserves to live with dignity, regardless of who they love or who they are,” said HUD Secretary Julián Castro. “HUD is committed to fighting unjust discrimination and to expanding housing opportunity for all.”

And if you screw with LGBT seniors: "HUD may pursue any available remedy, including sanctions, that it determines appropriate to remedy the violation." BOOM.

Feds Partner With Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Fund On LGBT Homelessness

Via press release from the True Colors Fund:

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the True Colors Fund are excited to announce the beginning stages of implementation of the LGBTQ Youth Homelessness Prevention Initiative, a first-of-its-kind effort to identify successful strategies to ensure that no young person is left without a home because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. HUD and the True Colors Fund have been working together since 2013 to conceive the elements of the Initiative, which is now ready to be implemented in Harris County, TX and Hamilton County, OH. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth comprise up to 40% of the homeless youth population in the United States, yet they make up only 5-7% of the general youth population. Family conflict is the most frequently reported reason that young people experience homelessness, and for LGBTQ youth, that conflict is often related to their sexual orientation or gender identity.

New HUD Study Shows Anti-LGBT Discrimination In Rental Housing Market

From the Department of Housing and Urban Development:

This is the first large-scale, paired-testing study to assess housing discrimination against same-sex couples in metropolitan rental markets via advertisements on the Internet. The research is based on 6,833 e-mail correspondence tests conducted in 50 metropolitan markets across the United States from June through October 2011. For each correspondence test, two e-mails were sent to the housing provider, each inquiring about the availability of the unit advertised on the Internet. The only difference between the two e-mails was the sexual orientation of the couple making the inquiry. Two sets of correspondence tests were conducted, one assessing the treatment of gay male couples relative to heterosexual couples and one assessing the treatment of lesbian couples relative to heterosexual couples. This methodology provides the first direct evidence of discriminatory treatment of same-sex couples compared with the treatment of heterosexual couples when searching for rental housing advertised on the Internet in the United States.

The study finds that same-sex couples experience less favorable treatment than heterosexual couples in the online rental housing market. The primary form of adverse treatment is that same-sex couples receive significantly fewer responses to e-mail inquiries about advertised units than heterosexual couples. Study results in jurisdictions with state-level protections against housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation unexpectedly show slightly more adverse treatment of same-sex couples than results in jurisdictions without such protections. This study provides an important initial observation of discrimination based on sexual orientation at the threshold stage of the rental transaction and is a point of departure for future research on housing discrimination against same-sex couples.

Bolding is mine. Read the full study.

Obama HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan Endorses Same-Sex Marriage

Following his appearance before a transgender rights group, last night HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan became to first sitting member of the Obama Cabinet to publicly endorse same-sex marriage. Chris Geidner reports at Metro Weekly:

Asked about this summer's passage of marriage equality in New York, Donovan says, "I was enormously proud to be a New Yorker on the day that it passed. I actually worked for Andrew Cuomo when he was Housing Secretary. I worked for Mike Bloomberg who has been a constant supporter of the law – what is now law." He talked about how the law's passage had affected those around him, saying, "So many friends that I know were able to achieve a dream the day that law passed. And so many neighbors. "It made me proud to be a New Yorker – not enough to get me to move back. We've got more work to do in the Obama administration in a second term."

Geidner notes that while Secretary Clinton called the passage of marriage equality in New York "historic," she has not explicitly endorsed same-sex marriage.

TENNESSEE: Anti-Gay Housing Official Reprimanded And Censured

Last month I called attention to Vicki Barnes, the Tennessee housing official who wrote a letter to HUD denouncing their proposed federal plan to end housing discrimination against LGBT people. In the letter, Barnes compared gay people to murderers and drug dealers. Yesterday local NBC television reported that Barnes has been reprimanded and censured for her letter, but still has her job. All future correspondence out of Barnes' office must now be reviewed by her superiors. Not a complete win for us, but probably the best we could hope for.

(Tipped by JMG reader Chris)

Catholic Bishops To HUD: Don't Add Gays To Housing Discrimination Protections

In January the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed sweeping new rules adding LGBT people as a protected class in all of its programs. That doesn't sit well with the Catholic Conference of Bigoted Bishops, who have sent HUD a letter strongly opposing the change.

"By this, we do not mean that any person should be denied housing. Making decisions about shared housing, however, is another matter,” wrote Picarello and Moses. “Particularly here, faith-based and other organizations should retain the freedom they have always had to make housing placements in a manner consistent with their religious beliefs, including when it concerns a cohabiting couple, be it an unmarried heterosexual couple or a homosexual couple. Given the very large role that faith-based organizations play in HUD programs, the regulation, by infringing upon that freedom, may have the ultimate effect of driving away organizations with a long and successful track record in meeting housing needs, leaving beneficiaries without the housing that they sought or that the government intended them to receive.”

Read their bigoted letter (PDF) in full.

(Via - Good As You)

TENNESSEE: Housing Official Says Gays Are Like Murderers and Drug Dealers

In January, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) invited public comment on proposed new rules banning discrimination against LGBT people in all its programs. That prompted Vicki Barnes, the executive director of Tennessee's Sweetwater Housing Authority to fire off a letter to HUD in which she compares gay people to murderers, cult members, prostitutes and drug dealers. According to Barnes, if HUD's proposed rules are adopted, landlords will opt out of Section 8 programs rather than "be bullied into accepting tenants who have chosen a lifestyle that goes against their moral convictions." Screen shots of Barnes' detestable letter are below.I've posted Barnes' full letter to my Scribd account. I believe we'll have a little project here, come Monday.

(Tipped by JMG reader James)

PhoboQuotable - Bryan Fischer

"The last thing in the world young males in troubled home settings need is to be put in a situation where there is a heightened chance they will be sexually molested by their next door neighbors. These HUD housing projects will become hunting grounds with easy prey for homosexual pedophiles. These young boys have enough obstacles to overcome as it is without becoming sexually confused and diseased on top of everything else." - American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer, objecting to proposed HUD rules banning housing discrimination against gays.

TAKE ACTION: HUD is now accepting public commentary on the proposed regulations. Hit the link and tell them why you think LGBT Americans deserve equal housing protections from the federal government.

HUD Proposes Regulations Banning Housing Discrimination Against Gays

From the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which notes that a 2007 study showed that 30% of same-sex couples in Michigan faced discrimination when attempting to rent or buy a home.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today proposed new regulations intended to ensure that its core housing programs are open to all eligible persons, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. View the proposed rule announced today. “This is a fundamental issue of fairness,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. “We have a responsibility to make certain that public programs are open to all Americans. With this proposed rule, we will make clear that a person’s eligibility for federal housing programs is, and should be, based on their need and not on their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

HUD is seeking public comment on a number of proposed areas including: Prohibiting lenders from using sexual orientation or gender identity as a basis to determine a borrower’s eligibility for FHA-insured mortgage financing. FHA’s current regulations provide that a mortgage lender’s determination of the adequacy of a borrower’s income “shall be made in a uniform manner without regard to” specified prohibited grounds. The proposed rule would add actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity to the prohibited grounds to ensure FHA-approved lenders do not deny or otherwise alter the terms of mortgages on the basis of irrelevant criteria.

HUD is also launching the first-ever national study of housing discrimination against LGBT Americans. On Monday HUD begins accepting public comments on the proposed law. I'll post a reminder, you know the haters will be ALL over it.

(Tipped by JMG reader Anita)

HUD Proposes New Rules To Protect Gays

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed a series of new rules guaranteeing equal access to their programs regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.

The initiatives announced today will be a proposed rule that will provide the opportunity for public comment. The proposed rule will:

• clarify that the term "family" as used to describe eligible beneficiaries of our public housing and Housing Choice Voucher programs include otherwise eligible lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgender (LGBT) individuals and couples. HUD's public housing and voucher programs help more than three million families to rent an affordable home. The Department's intent to propose new regulations will clarify family status to ensure its subsidized housing programs are available to all families, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
  
• require grantees and those who participate in the Department's programs to comply with local and state non-discrimination laws that cover sexual orientation or gender identity; and
  
• specify that any FHA-insured mortgage loan must be based on the credit-worthiness of a borrower and not on unrelated factors or characteristics such as sexual orientation or gender identity.

In addition to issuance of proposed rule, HUD will commission the first-ever national study of discrimination against members of the LGBT community in the rental and sale of housing.

HUD says the discrimination study will be "fast-tracked."

Barney Frank Eyes Obama Cabinet Post

The Hill reports that Rep. Barney Frank would like to join the Obama administration as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. But at least not until 2011 or so.

Rep. Barney Frank is interested in capping his political career as a member of the president’s Cabinet, according to a new biography of the Financial Services Committee chairman. Frank (D-Mass.) told author Stuart Weisberg that he would like to be Housing and Urban Development secretary. However, the 69-year-old lawmaker stresses that his departure from Congress is not imminent. He first wants to pass more legislation on affordable housing, saying, “I want at least two years with President Obama and a solidly Democratic Senate so that we can get the federal government back in the housing business.” No president has ever appointed an openly gay man or woman to the Cabinet.

I'd rather keep Barney in the House, pushing for LGBT rights. But it would be amusing to hear the howls of wingnut outrage if he were to be appointed to the Cabinet. Oh wait, it's already starting.

-"Congwessman Bawney Fag wants to be Secwetawy Bawney Fag. Bawney Fwank is a piece of excrement and not fit for any job."
-"The competition for Cabinet posts is very stiff. But he’ll get it in the end."
-"The White House is loaded with communists and homosexuals. Barney would be at home here and later on when his life’s work is over he can go to hell where he’ll feel equally at home. amongst his own kind."
-"More like, he wants to be the FUDge Secretary."