Fair Housing Statement

1. The protected classes

The federal Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3601 and following) makes it unlawful to discriminate in the sale, rental, financing, or advertising of housing because of:

• Race
• Color
• Religion
• Sex, which HUD reads to include sexual orientation and gender identity
• National origin
• Familial status, meaning households with children under 18, pregnant renters, and anyone in the process of securing custody of a child
• Disability, including a renter's need for a reasonable accommodation or a reasonable modification

Some cities and counties protect additional classes, such as source of income or age. Where a local ordinance is broader than federal law, we follow the broader rule.

2. What discriminatory advertising looks like

HUD's advertising rule (24 CFR 100.75) reaches wording as well as conduct. A listing breaks the rule when it signals a preference for or against a protected class, even when nobody is turned away. That includes describing who a community is for rather than what the community has.

The plain-English version we work to: describe the apartment, never the applicant. A three bedroom with a fenced yard near an elementary school is a fact about the property. A phrase suggesting the property suits one kind of household better than another is a preference, and we do not publish it.

3. Reasonable accommodations and assistance animals

A renter with a disability has the right to ask a community for a reasonable accommodation in its rules, or a reasonable modification to the unit at the renter's expense, when the change is needed to use and enjoy the home. Assistance animals are the most common example: an assistance animal is not a pet, so a community's pet rent, pet deposit, breed limit, and weight limit do not apply to one.

Pet policies shown on this site come from each community's own published rules and describe pets. If you need an accommodation, tell us and we will raise it with the community directly during your search, before you apply and before you pay a fee.

4. What we changed in the product

Fair Housing is enforced in this website's build, not left to whoever writes the copy:

• Every page has to clear a phrase scan before it can ship. The scan carries the wording HUD and the case law treat as a signal of preference, and a hit blocks the deploy rather than raising a warning.
• Our search filters describe the property, not the household. We filter on bedrooms, price, square footage, pet rules, school attendance boundaries, and commute time. We do not filter on who lives in a building or who a building is meant to attract.
• Communities that lawfully restrict occupancy by age under the Housing for Older Persons Act are labelled as age restricted and shown as their own category, so the restriction reads as the legal exemption it is instead of as a preference.
• Income restricted and tax credit communities are labelled with the program that sets the rent, so a renter can see why the number is what it is.
• Every price and availability statement traces to the community's own website or feed, on a stamped date. We do not quote a different rent to different renters.

5. Photography and floor plans

Property photos on this site come from each community's public marketing. They show the property, not the residents, and they are illustrative rather than photographs of the exact unit you would lease. We do not select imagery to suggest who lives at a community.

6. How to report a problem

If you believe you were treated unfairly by us, by a community you found through us, or by anyone else in a housing transaction, you can file a complaint. Filing is free, and it does not require a lawyer.

• HUD Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity — file online, or call 1-800-669-9777 (TTY 1-800-927-9275). A complaint generally must be filed within one year of the conduct.
• Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division — twc.texas.gov, which handles Texas Fair Housing Act complaints.
• Texas Real Estate Commission — for conduct by a license holder, including us: TREC consumer protection notice.
• Tell us first if you want to — help@sanmarcosapartments.com or (512) 865-4672. We would rather fix a page than have you find out the hard way, and reporting it to us does not affect your right to file anywhere above.

7. Equal opportunity in employment

Spirit Real Estate Group, LLC is an equal opportunity employer. Hiring and advancement decisions are made on qualifications and performance.