Case Particulars

Tribunal

Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity

Date Filed

July 9, 2026

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

Complaint Filed

Case Overview

On July 9, 2026, the Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (“FHEO”) against University of Minnesota (“UMN”) for “…operating four discriminatory university housing programs on its Twin Cities campus that classify students on the basis of race, color, or national origin, in violation of the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”).”

EPP’s civil rights complaint begins by introducing the Fair Housing Act:

Enacted as Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the FHA was intended “to provide, within constitutional limitations, for fair housing throughout the United States.” The FHA prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, and national origin in the sale or rental of housing. The FHA applies to a broad assortment of housing, both public and private, including single-family homes, apartments, condominiums, and mobile homes. Courts have also concluded that the FHA applies to college dormitories.

 

Under the FHA, it is unlawful to “make, print, or publish, or cause to be made, printed, or published any notice, statement, or advertisement, with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation, or discrimination.” Under applicable Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). regulations enforcing the FHA, this kind of “steering” toward or away from housing based on race is strictly prohibited. Steering liability attaches even if the housing program does not physically bar members of other racial or ethnic groups from participating.

The Complaint next explains how these programs violate federal law:

UMN’s discriminatory Learning Community Programs encourage, and/or deter, students from dormitory housing based on race, color, national origin, and therefore violate multiple provisions of federal law. Most obviously, these programs violate the Fair Housing Act because they classify and promote university housing based on race and national origin. Even if HUD were to conclude that the programs are not formally exclusionary, they independently violate the Act’s prohibition on discriminatory housing statements and racial steering

 

Steering is “not an outright refusal to rent to a person within a class of people protected by the statute; rather it consists of efforts to deprive a protected home seeker of housing opportunities in certain locations.” Fair Housing Congress v. Weber, 993 F. Supp. 1286, 1293 (C.D.Cal.1997). Instead, as applicable here, illegal steering consists of “communicating to any prospective [resident] that he or she would not be comfortable or compatible with existing residents of a community, neighborhood or development.”19 Under this standard, no discriminatory intent is required by the seller or renter…”

 

Finally, EPP’s complaint  requests FHEO take action:

FHEO has the power and obligation to investigate UMN’s role in creating, promoting, and administering the three identified discriminatory housing programs, to discern whether UMN is engaging in discrimination in other activities, and to impose whatever remedial relief is necessary to hold it accountable for that unlawful conduct.

 

This includes, if necessary, imposing fines, initiating administrative proceedings to suspend or terminate federal financial assistance and referring the case to the Department of Justice for judicial proceedings to enforce the rights of the United States under federal law.

 

Accordingly, we respectfully request that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity promptly open a formal investigation, impose all appropriate remedial measures authorized by law to address the three identified discriminatory housing programs at UMN, and ensure that all current and future initiatives and programs fully comply with the FHA, Title VI, the Fourteenth Amendment, and other applicable federal civil rights guarantees.

FHEO is evaluating EPP’s civil rights complaint for further action.