While 44 years have passed since April 1968’s milestone federal Fair Housing Act, an estimated four million violations of the law continue to occur each year. And although only a fraction of those violations actually get reported—less than 30,000 according to a 2010 estimate by the National Fair Housing Alliance—data indicate that a combined 56 percent of the bases for complaints filed over the last decade in Illinois involved discrimination based on race and national origin, with much of it targeted towards Latinos.

Analysis of HUD data, provided at the request of the Latino Policy Forum, shows that between 2000 and 2011, race continues to pose restrictions on housing choice for many families, with race-related complaints comprising the basis of nearly half (43 percent) of Illinois’ discrimination-related complaints. And for discrimination complaints based on national origin, 61 percent involved discrimination towards Latinos. Data was drawn from HUD and its Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP), which includes state and local government organizations charged with investigating and processing fair housing complaints.