Department of Housing and Urban Development November 20, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

As the Nation's housing agency, HUD administers programs designed to meet the goal of ensuring decent housing and a suitable living environment for all. In furtherance of this goal, in February 2012, HUD promulgated a final rule entitled ``Equal Access to Housing in HUD Programs Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity'' (Equal Access Rule), which requires that HUD-assisted and HUD-insured housing be made available without regard to actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status, and which generally prohibits inquiries into sexual orientation or gender identity for the purpose of determining eligibility for such housing or otherwise making such housing available. HUD's Equal Access Rule provides a limited exception for inquiries about the sex of an individual to determine eligibility for housing provided or to be provided to the individual when the housing is a temporary, emergency shelter that involves the sharing of sleeping areas or bathrooms, or for inquiries made for the purpose of determining the number of bedrooms to which a household may be entitled. At that time, HUD decided not to set national policy regarding how transgender persons would be accommodated in temporary, emergency shelters that involve shared sleeping quarters or shared bathing facilities, but instead decided to monitor and review its programs to determine if transgender individuals had greater access to temporary, emergency shelters as a result of the rule or if additional guidance or a national policy was warranted. HUD also committed to review the prohibition on inquiries contained in the Equal Access Rule. HUD has now monitored and reviewed its programs and, based on that review, is proposing this rule to require recipients and subrecipients of assistance from HUD's Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD), as well as owners, operators, and managers of shelters, buildings, and other facilities and providers of services covered by CPD's programs, to provide transgender persons and other persons who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth with access to programs, benefits, services, and accommodations in accordance with their gender identity. This proposed rule would also amend the definition of ``gender identity'' included in HUD's Equal Access Rule so the definition more clearly reflects the difference between actual and perceived gender identity. Finally, HUD has completed its review of the inquiries provision, and the proposed rule would eliminate the Equal Access Rule's current prohibition on inquiries related to sexual orientation or gender identity, while maintaining the prohibition against discrimination on those bases.