Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Fair Housing and Cohousing in Oregon

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Mar 7, 2025, at 3:27 PM, Lisa Kuntz via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> What constitutes preferential treatment and how is that different from
> being discriminatory?

The most important point is that you cannot discriminate against the protected 
classes — the ones specified by the law: race, color, religion, national 
origin, sex, disability, and familial status (presence of kids under 18 in a 
household).

You can prefer "households with children under 18" but you can’t prefer 
"households with children under 18, white only” or "households with children 
under 18, Black only.” You can prefer Spanish-speaking because that isn't one 
of the protected classes under the law, but that one is tricky since it might 
be interpreted as “national origin.” “Spanish-speaking but not from Mexico” 
would not be considered fair.

The issue is the protection of these specific protected classes. 

The law does not prohibit you from preferring based on other criteria.

I’m not a lawyer — so always check with one — I’ve just been studying the Fair 
Housing Act in the context of excluding single women in various ways and 
claiming that sex has nothing to do with it.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org