Our Mission Statement

The Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing Opportunity Council (EHOC) seeks to ensure equal access to housing for all people through education, counseling, investigation and enforcement.

Who We Are

We are the only private, not-for-profit fair housing enforcement agency working to end illegal housing discrimination in the Metropolitan St. Louis area. We serve anyone in the Missouri counties of St. Louis, St. Charles, Franklin, Jefferson, as well as the City of St. Louis; and in the Illinois counties of St. Clair, Madison and Monroe. EHOC fights illegal housing discrimination through:

• Education on fair housing laws for housing providers (lenders, landlords, real estate agents and insurance agents), local governmental bodies (those who should be concerned about the affects of discrimination on their communities) and the general public (especially those who are most likely to experience illegal discrimination); and

• Enforcement actions against those who we find, through our investigations, discriminate illegally; and

• Community outreach, by participating in grass-roots and community-based projects; working with academics, civil rights leaders, and the housing industry; and spreading the word about our services and message through public service announcements, press releases, distribution of material, and the creation of this website.

EHOC takes calls from individuals who believe they may have been discriminated against while trying to buy a home, rent an apartment, get a mortgage or apply for home owners insurance or in the way they've been treated by a landlord or an insurance agent while in their home. We investigate your claim and help resolve your complaint. Basically, if you think you've been discriminated against illegally in some way connected to where you live, give us a call!

EHOC was founded in 1992 as a result of a Confluence St. Louis (now Focus St. Louis) task force on Racial Polarization. By 1994, a dedicated volunteer Board was awarded a HUD grant to set up an office and hire the first paid staff. By early 1995, EHOC had three full time staff members and the capacity to investigate individual claims of housing discrimination. Since that beginning, EHOC has expanded our funding base to include local corporate and individual donors, a local private foundation, small county and city project grants and fee-for-service contracts with municipalities and housing providers.

There is no doubt that the greater St. Louis region experiences housing discrimination at least as often as the rest of the country. And the rest of the country sees it a lot. HUD estimates that the case load they hear each year only scratches the surface of the problem. And the problem is grave. The only barrier between home seekers and their choice of a home should be money. Illegal discrimination means that people are being denied their right to live where they want to live. Illegal discrimination also has a wider impact: economic advantages of home ownership are lost, neighborhoods wanting to become or remain diverse are thwarted, schools become or remain segregated and the community as a whole is hurt.