Washington, DC – Lawmakers are urging the Department of Housing and Urban Development to strengthen efforts to combat housing discrimination by translating housing discrimination reporting resources into Tagalog and Ilocano.
U.S. Reps. Kevin Mullin, CA-15, and Robert “Bobby” Scott, VA-03, co-lead the effort as many cases of housing discrimination go unreported as violations can be difficult to identify or document, and limited English proficiency (LEP) can be a further barrier to reporting violations.
The Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) community specifically has one of the highest levels of language assistance need out of any race or ethnicity category, with about one-third of the 24 million AANHPIs having limited English proficiency.
HUD has made significant strides in making information more accessible in different languages in a commitment to combat housing discrimination. It’s reporting resources have been translated into Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, Somali, Arabic, and Khmer, and it offers translation services over the phone. In its latest Language Access Plan, HUD confirmed Tagalog was one of the most frequently encountered non-English languages by HUD personnel, yet the Department has not yet translated housing discrimination reporting resources to Tagalog.