Erie County Fair Housing Law: Military Status

Local Law 4 of 2018 is Erie County's fair housing law. It lists military status among the protected classes in the sale and rental of housing and in advertising, and defines it as participation in the military service of the United States or of the State, including the Army and Air National Guard, the New York Naval Militia and the New York Guard. How to complain. Anyone, aggrieved or not, may file a complaint with the County within one year of the act. The County Executive designates the Commissioner of Environment and Planning to investigate and enforce, and may bring in a not-for-profit fair housing organization; the County can also open a case on its own. What it covers and what it does not. It protects military status, which reads as current service; it has no separate veteran status clause like Suffolk County's. A veteran treated unfairly because of past service can also turn to the State Human Rights Law.