Fair Housing Listening Session for Veterans Held in Fayetteville

Over the past few months, the Fair Housing Project has been hosting fair housing listening sessions around the state in partnership with local fair housing agencies, stakeholders, and community partners. The sessions are targeted towards engaging with the community and hearing from the public directly about the fair housing issues they have experienced or are concerned about.

In August, the Project hosted one such session in partnership with Fayetteville-Cumberland Human Relations Department and the North Carolina Housing Coalition on the fair housing needs of veterans. Attendees at the listening session, which included social workers, attorneys, veterans, and others, were invited to share their experiences with incidents of housing discrimination.

The Federal Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) prohibits discrimination in housing because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, and disability.

While the federal FHA and the North Carolina State Fair Housing Act do not explicitly prohibit discrimination because of veteran status, veterans (and active duty members of the military) are also members of other protected classes which are protected. In addition, Orange County, North Carolina’s fair housing ordinance does explicitly provide such protection to veterans.

The following provides a demographic overview of North Carolina’s veteran population:

• 8.3% of North Carolina’s adult population is a veteran (approximately 656,000).
• As of 2015, counties with the highest share of veterans among its population include: Onslow County (21.7%), Cumberland County (20.6%), Hoke County (19.5%), Craven County (18.7%), and Currituck County (15.7%).
• 10% of the NC veterans are between 18 and 34;
• Approximately 45% of NC veterans are 65 or older;
• 29% of NC veterans reported a disability in 2017;
• 10.6% of NC veterans are female;
• 72 % of NC veterans are White
• 21% of NC veterans are African American;
• 1% of NC veterans are American Indian;
• 0.6% of NC veterans are Asian; and
• 3.7% of NC veterans identify as Hispanic/Latino.
• 1.2% are some other race or multiracial

If you or someone you know is a veteran who has experienced housing discrimination, please contact the Fair Housing Project at 855-797-3247 or info@fairhousingnc.org. Additional resources about fair housing are available here.

Additional information about Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Veterans Law Project is available here.

Sources:
Rebecca Tippett, NC in Focus: Veteran Population, 2015 (November 11, 2015), https://demography.cpc.unc.edu/2015/11/11/nc-in-focus-veteran-population-2015/.
Rebecca Tippett, NC in Focus: 2017 Veteran Snapshot (November 8, 2018), https://demography.cpc.unc.edu/2018/11/08/nc-in-focus-2017-veteran-snapshot/.