Prepared by: Community Development Department,

City Of Decatur, Alabama. For more information on Fair Housing or on how to file a complaint, contact

Fair Housing Center of Northern Alabama, Birmingham, AL, at 866-740-1040

or www.fhcna.com.

Sources:

Fair Housing Advertising Regulations

The purpose of

the HUD regulations

is to assist the media

and advertisers in

complying with the

Fair Housing Act.

The purpose of

the HUD regulations

is to assist the media

and advertisers in

complying with the

Fair Housing Act.

The HUD Advertising Regulations

• Since 1972, the U.S. Department of Housing and

Urban Development (HUD) has had in place Fair

Housing Advertising regulations (24 C.F.R. Part 109).

• In 1989, HUD issued general regulations interpreting

the Fair Housing Act, which contain further

discussion of the Act’s advertising provisions.

• The purpose of these HUD regulations is to assist all

advertising media, advertising agencies, and other

persons who use real estate advertising to comply

with the Fair Housing Act.

HUMAN MODEL ADVERTISING

• If human models are depicted in advertising

campaigns, they must be generally reflective of the

makeup of the metropolitan area in which the ads

are published.

• Businesses involved in real estate advertising have

an obligation to take steps to ensure that the

advertising they publish, as read by an ordinary

reader, does not convey a message of preference

for or against any protected group, whether

through pictures or words.

All publishers should publish at the

beginning of their real estate advertising

section a notice including language that captures this

message: All real estate advertised herein is subject to

the Federal Fair Housing Act which makes it illegal to

advertise “any preference, limitation or discrimination

because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial

status, or national origin, or intention to make any such

preference, limitation or discrimination.”

THE PUBLISHER’S FAIR HOUSING NOTICE

The HUD regulations provide

that all advertising for the sale,

rental or financing of housing

should contain an equal housing

opportunity (“EHO”) logotype, statement or slogan.

EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY SYMBOLS

HUD regulations warn against selective advertising

campaigns, such as a campaign that primarily uses

media catering to one racial or national origin segment

of the population without complementary advertising

directed at other groups.

SELECTIVE PLACEMENT OF ADVERTISEMENT

Standards Addressed by the Regulations