The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced a new directive to begin implementation of the policy set forth in President Joe Biden’s executive order to prevent and combat sexual orientation and gender identity-based discrimination under Fair Housing rules.

HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) issued a memorandum stating that HUD interprets the Fair Housing Act to bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and directing HUD offices and recipients of HUD funds to enforce the act accordingly.

The memorandum begins implementation of the policy set forth in President Biden’s Executive Order 13988 on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation (Executive Order), which directed executive branch agencies to examine further steps that could be taken to combat such discrimination.

“Housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity demands urgent enforcement action,” said Assistant Secretary of FHEO Jeanine M. Worden in a release. “That is why HUD, under the Biden administration, will fully enforce the Fair Housing Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. Every person should be able to secure a roof over their head free from discrimination, and the action we are taking today will move us closer to that goal.”

The HUD release said the significance of this action is underscored by a number of housing-discrimination studies which indicate that same-sex couples and transgender persons in communities across the country experience demonstrably less favorable treatment than their straight and cisgender counterparts when seeking rental housing.

Despite this reality, the HUD has been constrained in its efforts to address housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity by legal uncertainty about whether most such discrimination was within HUD’s reach.