Guide to LGBTQ tenants rights in Pennsylvania

If you identify as LGBTQ, you’re much more likely to face discrimination in many facets of your life. But what about for housing? Can a landlord evict you — or refuse to rent to you in the first place — because of your sexual orientation or gender identity?

For LGBTQ people, housing discrimination is a big problem. A 2017 study from the Urban Institute found that landlords told gay men about fewer available apartments than straight men, and quoted them higher rent for those apartments. In another 2015 study, 23% of transgender people reported that they had experienced housing discrimination — like being evicted or denied a rental — in the past year because of their gender identity. And in the Philadelphia region, at least 40% of people aged 18 to 26 who experience homelessness identify as LGBTQ.

Rooting out discrimination — for both people who are housing insecure and current renters — is essential, says Rue Landau, former executive director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations and Fair Housing Commission, and current Beck Professor of Law at Temple University Beasley School of Law, who also identifies as a lesbian. “[People] should know that they can file complaints to protect their rights.”

But what are your housing rights if you identify as LGBTQ? And what can you do if you feel you have been discriminated against? Here is what you need to know:

No. There are federal, state, and local protections that protect LGBTQ people against housing discrimination.

In Philly, the Fair Practices Ordinance (FPO) has strong protections for LGBTQ people. Sexual orientation has been a protected category since 1982, and gender identity since 2002. As part of the FPO, property owners cannot refuse to sell, rent, or lease to you based on your sexual orientation or gender identity, or change your lease because of those identifiers. (There are some exceptions for religious institutions and owner-occupied buildings.)

Philadelphia’s protections, Landau says, are stronger than the federal and state protections because they are more expansive and explicit.

It’s not just Philly: More than 40 local governments throughout Pennsylvania have additional protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.

» READ MORE: Your rights as a tenant: Check out our tenants' rights guide.

Pennsylvania has some housing protections for people who identity as LGBTQ.

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, which covers discrimination in housing for categories including race, religion, age, and sex, doesn’t explicitly mention gender identity or sexual orientation. But in 2018, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, which enforces that legislation, announced that it would consider discrimination based on sex to also include:

As a result, since 2018, you can file a complaint in Pennsylvania if you have been discriminated against by your landlord because of your sexual orientation or gender identity. That said, there may be exceptions for some landlords, such as for religious organizations and owner-occupied units.

Up until recently, there were no clear federal antidiscrimination housing protections for LGBTQ people. That changed in February 2021, when the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it would enforce the federal Fair Housing Act to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and investigate complaints. That means that LGBTQ people are protected by the 1968 Fair Housing Act, and it’s illegal to refuse to rent, sell, or deny you financing for housing because you identify as LGBTQ.

In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that the laws that prevent discrimination based on sex at work also protect people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Then, in January 2021, President Biden issued an executive order directing federal agencies (including HUD) to make sure their policies reflect those protections as well.

“What we have now is the U.S. Supreme Court saying, ‘Hey, we believe that the category of sex is expansive enough to include sexual orientation and gender identity. So people should file cases, whether it’s employment or housing,” Landau says.

While it isn’t totally clear, the new federal housing protections for LGBTQ people should apply to both public and private housing, Landau says. And they include every part of the rental process, from application, to renting, to termination of a lease — and if a landlord denies you housing or evicts you based on your sexual orientation or gender identity, you can file a discrimination complaint with HUD.

If you feel you have experienced housing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, you can file a complaint in a number of places, depending on where the alleged discrimination happened.

“You have a choice of forum here,” she says. “You could file at HUD, you could file at the Pennsylvania Commission. But I always say … file with the entity that has the most explicit law.”

If you are in Philadelphia, Landau suggests filing a complaint with the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations. To start the complaint process, fill out a House and Real Property Discrimination Intake Form and fax it to 215-686-4684, or mail or bring it to 601 Walnut St., Suite 300 South, Philadelphia, PA 19106. If you need help, call the PCHR at 215-686-4670.

What happens next? The office will review paperwork, and set up a meeting with you. If the office takes your claim, it will investigate, and hold a hearing. Generally, the process can take as little as a few weeks, or as long as several months or even years. But housing investigations are supposed to be completed within 100 days, according to the Philadelphia Code. And often, cases can be mediated to come to an agreed-upon settlement.

But if not, the commission can take a number of actions if they rule in your favor, such as awarding you compensatory and punitive damages of up to $2,000 per violation, plus reasonable attorney fees. The commission can also order “injunctive or equitable” relief — or, in other words, they can stop you from being evicted, or require that you are given a unit that you were previously denied. The decisions can be appealed in court.

If you are outside Philadelphia, you can file a complaint with the Pennsylvania commission, who will send your complaint with HUD as well (both groups have powers similar to the Philadelphia commission, but they can issue larger fines, Landau says). You can only file your complaint with the PCHR, or the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission — not both.

For help with filing a housing discrimination complaint with the PHRC, call the PA Fair Housing Hotline at 855-866-5718. Or, if you prefer to file directly with HUD, you can do so online, via email, or by calling 1-800-669-9777.

While there are some federal and state protections, they are still fragile because explicit, LGBTQ-oriented language isn’t written directly into the law, Landau says.

“Many people in the LGBTQ community, myself included, do not believe that this is strong enough. We want the actual categories included in the law,” she says. “It’s clear, it’s direct, it’s safer — and you don’t have to worry about another administration that would come in and change anything.”

“If you’ve got the wrong chairperson, the wrong executive director, and the wrong governor of Pennsylvania, maybe they would start interpreting their law differently,” Landau says. “That’s why it’s so important to have the categories explicitly listed in the law.”

That change could be coming. The Fair and Equal Housing Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity into the Fair Housing Act, was introduced in Congress in 2017 and 2019, though it hasn’t been introduced in the current Congress. In Pennsylvania, Landau says, there have been numerous attempts to amend the PHRA to include those categories, though none have so far succeeded.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the city’s push toward economic justice. See all of our reporting at brokeinphilly.org.