How to File a Complaint

Filing a Discrimination Complaint with the Equal Housing Opportunity Council?

There are three ways to file a complaint with EHOC:

Call us at 1-800-555-3951 or 314-534-5800. Have all of the information available about your discrimination complaint to discuss with our intake officer. The intake officer will take your information, counsel you and mail you a complaint form, which will be filed with the US Department of Housing & Urban Development, the Missouri Commission on Human Rights, the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the St. Louis Civil Rights Enforcement Agency or a private attorney, based on our consultation with you.

File an on-line complaint.Click here to file your complaint online. After we receive your complaint, EHOC will send you a finalized copy of your complaint with a client agreement for you to fill out and return to us.

Download the complaint form and client agreement. Fill them out, sign them and mail them to us at EHOC, 1027 South Vandeventer Ave, 6th Floor, St. Louis, MO; 63110.client agreement Complaint Form in EnglishComplaint Form in Spanish

What you should know about filing a complaint with EHOC:

1. Do not talk to the housing provider, lender, real estate agent about filing a complaint. If you suspect someone has discriminated against you, contact EHOC first to make us aware of your complaint. In some cases, talking to the respondent about the situation might harm our ability to investigate your case.

2.Contact us as soon after the discriminatory incident as you are able. You have a year from the time of discrimination to file a complaint with HUD and two years to file in federal court. You only have six months to file with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights. But the sooner you report discrimination, the sooner we can begin our investigation.

3. EHOC will conduct our own investigation of your case before forwarding to an enforcement agency or attorney. This investigation may include the use of “testing”. The evidence gathered from “testing” can strengthen your case. If you file directly with an enforcement agency, you will not have any testing evidence to back up your claim.

4. EHOC won’t take any action without your consent. EHOC will not forward your complaint on to an enforcement agency or private attorney without talking to you first, and will not notify the respondent without talking to you first. Sometimes, EHOC is able to resolve complaints while working directly with the housing provider or the person accused of discrimination. Other times, the person you are filing a complaint against is not notified about the complaint until they receive a notice from HUD or another enforcement agency. It is essential that we have your full contact information so that we can contact you about your complaint.

5. EHOC accepts anonymous tips.We realize that sometimes people feel that they are not in a position to file a complaint. Please go ahead and use our on-line form. You can put pseudonym for your name (John or Jane Doe) or just write Anonymous. If we have the information about a discriminatory situation, we still may be able to conduct an investigation and work to end the discriminatory practice. You will not receive any monetary relief from any settlement, but you can feel satisfied that some action has been taken to end discrimination.

To continue on to the EHOC online complaint form click here

To file a complaint with the US Department of Housing Urban Development: Online Complaint Form**

To file a complaint with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights DOLIR**

To file a complaint with the Illinois Department of Human Rights Click here**

**Please do not file with more than one agency at a time as this may duplicate efforts to investigate your complaint.