Families with Children & Fair Housing (Familial Status)
Protections for familial status under fair housing laws include (1) presence of children under 18 in the family, (2) women who are pregnant and/or (3) adults attempting to secure custody of children through adoption or guardianship.
Housing discrimination due to familial status can take many forms including:
- Advertising “no kids,” or “1 child ok,” or “adults preferred.”
- A lender mandating a woman return from maternity leave before approving a mortgage.
- Restricting families with children to certain buildings or floors.
- Overly restrictive occupancy standards which more harshly impact families with children.
- Not notifying a family with children about the known presence of lead paint.
- Restricting housing development in an attempt to limit the number of children in an area.
- Per head rental or deposit charges.
- Applying rules or policies that directly impact families with children, such as “Kids cannot play outside,” adult only swim times, or curfews above and beyond any local ordinance.
- Rules or policies which restrict minor children of opposite genders or certain ages from sharing bedrooms (also a form of gender based discrimination).
FHCCI Resources:
- FHCCI Fair Housing Laws and Familial Status Protections Fact Sheet:
- FHCCI Familial Status Video
HUD Guidance: 
- HUD Memo on Occupancy Standards, December 18, 1988 (commonly called the Keating Memo)
- HUD Guidance Memo on Conversion of Property to Housing for Older Persons, April 2, 1999
- HUD Question & Answer Memo on Housing for Older Persons 2005
- HUD Occupancy Standard Manual for Subsidized Multifamily Housing Projects
Reports of Interest:
- Evicting Children, Desmond, Matthew, Weihua An, Richelle Winkler, and Thomas Ferriss. 2013.
General Information:
- NFHA Familial Status Video
- Marion County Housing & Environmental Standards (see Article 8 for occupancy restriction language)
- Lead Based Paint Issues:
