The Task Force today signed on to a letter to support the Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) Act, which was introduced in the house by Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Earlier this year, Task Force Action Fund Executive Director Rea Carey testified before Congress on this issue, calling on federal lawmakers to amend the Fair Housing Act to ban discrimination against LGBT people.

Currently, the Fair Housing Act protects against housing discrimination based on race or color, religion, sex, national origin, family status or disability. But the truth of the matter is, every day in America, people are discriminated in housing simply because of their sexual orientation or their gender identity.

Discrimination of this kind is pervasive, especially among transgender people. As data from our forthcoming Transgender Discrimination Survey shows, 11 percent of transgender people reported having been evicted and 19 percent reported becoming homeless due to bias. While the general population has a home ownership rate of 68 percent, our survey showed only a 32 percent rate among transgender people.

The HOME Act would outlaw this discrimination by updating the Fair Housing Act and extending the protections of the federal Fair Housing Act to individuals regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or source of income. The HOME Act takes a major step to ensuring that all Americans have equal access to home lending, the home rental market, and the home sales market.