A home --everybody needs one, but how easy is it to get one? Besides income, many housing agencies look at marital status, number of children, and age in determining whether or not they will rent to a perspective tenant. Sometimes singles are denied the opportunity to rent simply because they are unmarried, while at other times married couples are denied rentalship because they have too many children. How do single parents fare in this type of environment? What is the best way for singles to go about renting in today's housing systems?

Nineties-style living and an increase in the single population has led to the passing of many laws and the creation of many disputes regarding renting or not renting due to marital status. Federal law and the Fair Housing act approved in 1988 prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of marital status. Although a federal law exists, there are still many cases of discrimination that are themselves up held by the law. For example, in Elgin, Illinois (my home town) an appellate court recently ruled that landlords do not have to rent to unmarried couples. If injustices like this occur then how can single people possibly acquire or even afford housing? This would be a deliberate attack against single people who have a significant other and choose to stay unmarried as well as situations such as "three's company" style living. The result is an increase in the cost of living for singles who are then forced to live alone unable to split the monthly rent.

Officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development report that housing discrimination complaints have tripled in the last decade. Certain HUD officials like to believe that this is due to an increasing awareness of the public about housing discrimination. They also point to the addition of families as a protected group, which opens a whole new area for fair-housing advocates.

One of these advocates, Frances Barnes, a member of the Pennsylvania Real estate Commission and an advocate of the fair-housing enforcement agrees "Once the word gets out that people, average people, are entitled to monetary damages, we are going to see a lot more cases filed and a lot more judgements. And the people out there who aren't obeying the law are going to be paying." On the flipside, maybe the system is being abused? Where is the line drawn between discrimination and "fair" housing? Are people simply using another one of the nations good ideas for selfish purposes?

Picture this: "Sunny bachelor apartment. Great for students, singles, quiet neighborhood near biking and jogging trails. Walking distance to churches, synagogues, shopping." Now picture a horrendously expensive lawsuit. Because that's what you could wind up facing if you wrote or published that real estate advertisement in California.

The Fair Housing act, while prohibiting discrimination on the baisis of race, origin and marital status, also applies to newspapers that publish ads like this as well as the advertisers who create them. The ficticious ad above doesn't quite hit all the law's hot spots but a close read reveals that it could send an unfriendly message to those who:

1) Are not male ("bachelor's apartment")
2) May be married or have children ("singles")
3) Are disabled (mentioning "jogging" or "biking")
4) May not be observant Christians or Jews (mentioning "churches" or "Synagogues")

 If you think this sounds far fetched, know this: Thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees were paid over ads much less egregious of housing bias. Thomas Honore, director of the Fair Housing Division says it's not that simple, "We demean the law by saying it's just about a list of words. I don't believe in having lists because no list will by its nature be all-inclusive and you have to look at the context. People are looking for a simple answer to a much more complex issue.. It's a long and sad tradition of people assuming that some people are less worthy or less attractive and deserve less of a welcome." So, who is being welcomed?

According to the most recent census statisitics, single women own 13.8 million homes, more than double the number they did 25 years ago. Women, including single mothers, make up 22.5 percent of all homeowners, a slight rise from a decade ago. Association economist Gopal Ahluwalia says this trend is because "Women tend to be better savers than men. Also, having their own nest seems more important to them." By contrast , single men comprise only 12.6 percent. But even though women may be better savers and "nesters", as Mr. Ahluwalia stated, they still may have a more difficult time buying a house than single men or married couples.

Take Laura Bennett. The 43 year-old Orlando marketing consultant has purchased two houses on her own--one recently, the other when she was 30. Though she has a strong credit record and employment history, and makes $75,000 a year, Ms. Bennett felt frustrated both times she applied for mortgages. Each time, lenders asked her to supply reams of documentation-more, she suspects, than she would be asked to provide if she were a single man or part of a couple.

"They wanted every check stub--I had to prove everything over and over," she says. "I never knew if it was part of the regular lending process or if it was because I was a single woman."

With each purchase, Ms. Bennett had to switch mortgage companies several times, losing her application fees, before she found lenders who didn't overload her with paperwork, "I'm surprised that no one seemed to consider the fact that I've got no children or other obligations as positives. Even though I easily could afford the homes I bought people shook their heads and said, 'If only you had a second income.."'

Mary Harker, a Dallas real estate agent, says her clients sometimes face the same sort of runaround Ms. Bennett did. "I always try to steer my single women buyers to young loan officers, who have a bit more sensitivity. The over-50 year olds still can be quite misogynistic," she says.

For another example, let's take a look at the situation of a single father. Arnold Landry is a single father who spends most weeks traveling for his employer and his weekend with his two children. Landry is among a growing number of single father who care for their children alone. The children of nearly a quarter of all families in metropolitan areas live only with one parent, according to the census bureau.

Near the top of the list of concerns for single parents like Landry is what to to about housing. After a divorce, of course, there are two households. And some parents, through the sheer cost of creating a second household after a divorce, are forced to move to smaller quarters, perhaps a town house or apartment instead of a detatched house. But each family's circumstances are different and so the solutions vary too..

Landry said that after he and his wife separated in the early 1980's after three years of marriage, the children stayed with Landry's mother and grandmother in Texas. But two years ago they moved back in with him into a three-bedroom apartment . The children are doing well, but costs are rising. When Landry is away, the children go home afer school to finish chores and spend the night with a neighboring family. "It's tough, going from being a bachelor to being a single father, but the rewards are so great," Landry said.

"Housing's always a big problem," for single parents, said Carol Meeks, professor and chairman of the Housing and Consumer economics Department at the University of Georgia's College of Family and Consumer Sciences. "Single parents generally have problems in finding places they can afford." They are also having touble finding places that they can get in.

In her article "Suit Challenges Rental Limits on occupancy; Two Single Parents Oppose Restrictions on Apartment" Caroline Mayer noted that some landlords are being sued for alleged discrimination against families when they try to limit the number of people living in their property. But to say that limiting the number of occupants constitutees illegal discrimination against faimilies is false. It is the size of the groups, not whether they are families, that is the discriminating factor.

Restrictive occupancy rules seem to be the single biggest hurdle families have to face right now in getting an apartment. But groups of singles face the same problem. In fact, they are generally denied more often than families of the same size. Also families enjoy preferential treatment in most local zoning codes, which allow more occupants in a property it they are related.

Joseph L. Whitney, of the Washington Post writes "In a free market, if an owner chooses to minimize the risk of damage or humans allowed to occupy it, he has that right. The more people occupying a property--treading on floors, using appliances and plumbing and electrical fixtures--the higher the costs that can be expected. This is a fact of life, not based on stereotype or prejudice. No law should ever enforce an owner to accept a higher number of occupants than he considers acceptable."

With all of the financial and social restrictions on singles and housing, it's good to know that help is out there. With so many cases of discrimination against singles, a new market has been created for real estate to pick up on. Jim Murar, chairman of RecreActions Group of companies in Newport Beach, Calif., says he has focused his entire company's efforts on meeting the housing needs of single women and men and other "non traditional" buyers such as childless couples and single parents.