When gender-neutral rental housing policy becomes gender-inequitable

The 1974 amendment to the U.S. Fair Housing Act outlawed discrimination in housing by gender. The rental housing policies I describe in this chapter are on the surface gender neutral, yet their design and implementation make them disproportionately and negatively influence women, particularly women of color and women who have children. I argue housing discrimination by gender still exists in rental housing policy, using the Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP), criminal activity nuisance ordinances (CANOs), and eviction policies as case studies. While these rental housing policies are designed to be gender neutral, legislation gives administrators substantial discretion in policy implementation and enforcement, which is primarily responsible for the observed disparate impact. Public administrators need to act to reduce and eliminate these disparities by counteracting negative social constructions of women, increasing representative bureaucracy, and carefully designing new rental housing policies focused on equitable use of discretion in implementation and enforcement.