5 – Display the Equal Housing Opportunity Logo

Also look for posts in which prospective or current residents indicate they feel they’ve been treated unfairly, don’t feel welcome in your community, or feel they are being discouraged from living in your community. Reviews should look for words or images that discriminate, limit or deny equal access to your community based on membership in any federally, state or locally protected class.4 – Designate a point person to regularly review all social media posts A good rule of thumb is to describe the community, not the people. Avoid things like racial or ethnic terms, references to religion, exclusions based on disability, and limitations based on familial status. Social media messages must not position your community as more or less suitable for someone based on membership in a protected class.Show diversity when using avatars, animated characters, and illustrations, too. For example, show males and females, people of different races, people with disabilities, a variety of ages, and families with and without children. Consider all federal, state, and locally protected classes.When sharing images, show males and females, people of different races, people with disabilities, a variety of ages, and families with and without children in order to comply with fair housing laws. Do the same for any agency or service that has access to your social media. Before being given access to your social media accounts, each person should complete fair housing training and acknowledge your company’s policies and procedures.Here are some tips to help ensure your employees use social media in a way that complies with fair housing law. Social media communications are often considered advertisements.ĥ ways to comply with Fair Housing on social media But “advertising” doesn’t just apply to traditional advertising, such as newspaper and Internet ads, banners and signs, and commercials.

How is this relevant to property management companies?ĭiscrimination in advertising is prohibited by the Fair Housing Act. It is illegal to create, publish or distribute housing ads that discriminate, limit or deny equal access to housing because of membership in any federally protected class. Every single ad was approved within minutes. “All of these groups are protected under the federal Fair Housing Act, which makes it illegal to publish any 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.” Violators can face tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

Here is what ProPublica said late last year, “Last week, ProPublica bought dozens of rental housing ads on Facebook, but asked that they not be shown to certain categories of users, such as African Americans, mothers of high school kids, people interested in wheelchair ramps, Jews, expats from Argentina and Spanish speakers. However, ProPublica recently retested and found lapses in the company’s monitoring of the rental market. Last year, ProPublica revealed that Facebook advertisers could target housing ads to whites only.Īfter that report, Facebook said it had built a system to spot and reject discriminatory ads. You are responsible for complying with anti-discrimination and anti-harassment laws, no matter what form of communication you are using.ĭo you display the equal housing opportunity logo on your social media posts? When you share information in print or in person you may be aware of the Fair Housing issues, but are you watching all of your social media posts as closely? Social media is a great tool for marketing in the multifamily industry to help build strong connections and community with your customers, but did you know Fair Housing laws apply?

Equal housing opportunity logo size requirements