Fair Housing Enabling General Provision
2006 HRC Request

It is the policy of the County of Frederick to provide for fair housing to all its residents, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, age, familial status, national origin, disability, source of income, or marital status; and to that end to prohibit discriminatory practices with respect to residential housing by any person or group of persons, in order that the peace, health, safety, prosperity, and general welfare of all the inhabitants of the County may be protected and insured.

The Human Rights Commission (HRC) requests that enabling legislation be included in the Frederick County Board of County Commissioners 2007 Legislative Packet to grant the Frederick County Commissioners the authority to add additional substantive fair housing protection to Frederick County’s Anti-Discrimination Ordinance. The HRC requests changes to Section 2-2-68 to include the following:

1. Add definitions of “aggrieved person,” “County”, “Commission”. “complainant”, “conciliation”, “department”, “discriminatory housing practice”, “dwelling”, “exceptions”, “remedial authority”, “marital status”, “multifamily dwelling”, “person”, “respondent”, and “to rent,” define disability for fair housing purposes
2. Describe prohibited fair housing practices and exceptions by making unlawful discrimination in the sale or rental of housing, refusal to allow a person with a disability to make reasonable modifications to a dwelling, refusal to make reasonable accommodations to allow persons with disabilities an equal opportunity to use or enjoy a dwelling, failure to design or construct a multifamily dwelling that provides access for persons with disabilities, discrimination in residential real estate transactions, and discrimination in the provision of brokerage services
3. Describe accessibility and reasonable accommodation requirements with regard to multifamily dwellings
4. Provide a stronger interference and coercion language by making coercion, intimidation, threatening, interference, use of force or the threat of force, and retaliation unlawful
5. Provides for injunctive relief
6. Provide an election option to have a matter heard on appeal before the HRC or in court
7. Allow the HRC or other parties to go to Circuit Court to have an HRC order enforced
8. Allow the Department to initiate civil action in the Circuit Court for temporary or preliminary relief after consultation with the County Attorney’s Office
9. Add actual monetary relief and equitable relief remedies for violations of the Source of Income and Familial Status provisions
10. Prohibit discriminatory Restrictive Covenant provisions limiting the transfer, rental or lease of a dwelling
11. To change the Statute of Limitation in Fair Housing complaints to one year
12. Require the Human Relations Department to commence investigations within thirty days of receipt of a complaint and, when possible, complete investigations within one hundred days.