Fair Housing
It's Your Right
The Fair Housing Act protects people from discrimination when they are renting, buying, or securing financing for any housing. The prohibitions specifically cover discrimination because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, and the presence of children.
The City of Morgantown receives Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding each year from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). As a recipient of these funds, the city certifies each year that it will Affirmatively Further Fair Housing and that the grant will be conducted and administered in conformity with anti-discrimination laws. The City of Morgantown is also an Equal Opportunity Employer.
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The City’s Human Rights Commission provides leadership for addressing community interaction and fairness concerns. It works to ensure the City is not only providing services, but maintaining ways in which a community can live together inclusively, functionally, and justly despite differences, complexities, and conflicts. This Commission focuses on stewardship and service, but also on the quality of community life and the protection of the community from preventable unfair damage to the lives of individual citizens and families.
The West Virginia Human Rights Commission encourages and endeavors to bring about respect, tolerance, and mutual understanding among all citizens of West Virginia regardless of their race, gender, religious persuasion, ethnicity, or disability. The Commission will administer and ensure adherence to, through education, investigation, mediation, and adjudication, the Human Rights Act which prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, and places of public accommodation.
The West Virginia Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment and in places of public accommodations based on race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, age (40 or above), blindness, or disability. In addition, discrimination in housing because of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, blindness, disability, or familial status is forbidden.
The mission of the HUD Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) is to eliminate housing discrimination, promote economic opportunity, and achieve diverse, inclusive communities by leading the nation in the enforcement, administration, development, and public understanding of federal fair housing polices and laws. The HUD Pittsburgh FHEO Field Office covers the State of West Virginia.
There are three (3) ways a Fair Housing complaint can be filed with HUD FHEO:
By completing the HUD Form 903 Online Complaint online, by calling 412-644-5449 or 888-799-2085, or by writing to HUD Pittsburgh FHEO Field Office at the Moorhead Federal Building, 1000 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222.
Complaints filed with HUD are investigated by the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO). If the complaint is not successfully conciliated, FHEO determines whether reasonable cause exists to believe that a discriminatory housing practice has occurred. Where reasonable cause is found, the parties to the complaint are notified by HUD's issuance of a Determination, as well as a Charge of Discrimination, and a hearing is scheduled before a HUD administrative law judge (ALJ). Either party - complainant or respondent - may cause the HUD-scheduled administrative proceeding to be terminated by electing instead to have the matter litigated in Federal court. Whenever a party has so elected, the Department of Justice takes over HUD's role as counsel seeking resolution of the charge on behalf of aggrieved persons, and the matter proceeds as a civil action. Either form of action - the ALJ proceeding or the civil action in Federal court - is subject to review in the U.S. Court of Appeals.