Reagan Signs Law to Enhance Enforcement of Fair Housing

President Reagan signed legislation Tuesday putting new enforcement teeth in the open-housing law that Congress passed in the wake of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 assassination.

Standing with members of Congress in the White House Rose Garden, Reagan hailed the newly enacted bill as “the most important civil rights legislation in 20 years.”

Singling out Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who had accompanied King to Washington for the civil rights leader’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, the President said the legislation “has brought us one step closer to realizing Martin Luther King’s dream.”

The measure, which was passed overwhelmingly by the House and Senate, extends anti-discrimination protections to the handicapped and to families with children. It also empowers the federal government--for the first time--to seek fines of up to $100,000 against individuals or organizations found to have engaged in a pattern of housing discrimination.

Previous Role as Mediator

Under the open-housing provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the government was given only a mediating role in housing discrimination disputes.

“Discrimination is particularly tragic when it means a family is refused housing near good schools, a good job or simply in a better neighborhood to raise children,” Reagan said. “This bill is the product of years of bipartisan work, and repairs a significant . . . defect in civil rights law.”

He said that, although the 1968 law was well-intentioned, “it lacked teeth. Its conciliation provisions were ineffective when used.”

Reagan said he and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Samuel R. Pierce Jr. had “devoted eight years” to seeking improvements in the 1968 law, “to redress the absence of penalties and the inability of the government to initiate actions except when ‘a pattern of discrimination’ could be proven.”

Under the bill he signed Tuesday, HUD will have authority to initiate enforcement actions and to seek penalties against individuals, businesses or organizations that discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex or national origin in the sale, rental or financing of housing.

Fines Could Increase

It authorizes civil penalties, which could be recommended after an agency administrative enforcement process, of up to $10,000 for a first offense, $25,000 for a second and up to $50,000 for a third.

In instances where a pattern of discrimination has been alleged, the government could seek up to $50,000 for a first offense and as much as $100,000 for subsequent offenses.