Congress Gives Its Final OK to Housing Laws Strengthening Federal Enforcement

The House Monday approved and sent to President Reagan a bill to strengthen federal enforcement of housing laws and, for the first time, prohibit discrimination against families with children or handicapped people in both rentals and sales.

Reagan has announced that he will sign the measure. Its sponsors have termed it the most important civil rights legislation in two decades.

Signifying the lack of controversy on an issue that once sharply divided the Congress, the House acted by voice vote and without debate on the bill, which had sailed through the Senate on a vote of 94 to 3 last week. Earlier, the House had adopted a similar measure by an overwhelming margin of 376 to 23.

Democratic leaders decided to push the bill through quickly to get it to the President’s desk before the House adjourns Thursday for a three-week recess.

Timely for Bush

Reagan, following the lead of Vice President George Bush, the prospective Republican presidential nominee, endorsed the legislation last week after it was revised to incorporate several changes worked out with Samuel R. Pierce Jr., the secretary of housing and urban development and the only black in the Cabinet.

In another switch from the past, national associations of builders and real estate agents conferred closely with civil rights groups to work out legislative compromises and to ease passage of the bill in both houses of Congress.

Pierce’s department issued a report saying discrimination in housing remains pervasive 20 years after passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, a law that has been criticized as a toothless tiger because of its lack of effective enforcement procedures.

HUD estimates that 2 million people, most of them blacks, suffer from discrimination in buying homes or renting apartments every year.

New Enforcement Tools

Under the legislation, HUD for the first time would be able to start an enforcement action if it believed that an act of discrimination had occurred. In the past, it could only mediate disputes between landlords and prospective tenants.

Under current law, individuals who file complaints can seek relief only by filing lawsuits in federal court. The Justice Department can take action only if a “pattern or practice” of discrimination is alleged.

The new measure sets fines ranging up to $50,000 (for a third violation) and provides for injunctive relief. A key compromise would allow either the complaining party or the accused to demand a federal jury trial.

A major innovation in the legislation would forbid exclusion of families with children under 18, except for retirement communities in which most residents are older than 55.

This could mean the end of many “adults only” apartment houses and condominiums that cater to younger couples and single people, congressional aides said.

The bill also outlaws housing bias against physically or mentally handicapped people, and would require some changes in new apartment buildings to provide access for tenants in wheelchairs.