City Council
Protected classes to be simplified in city code.
Residents' protections against discrimination could be gathered into one master list in city code. Now, council has moved that bill out of committee, sending it to a vote at a legislative session. It covers housing, employment, and public accommodations. It would also preserve the civil rights agency's power to act against policies that seem neutral but have a discriminatory impact.
Written by Inform Up Staff
In the wake of increasing discrimination at the federal level, Pittsburgh’s Commission on Human Rights, the municipal civil rights enforcement agency, is seeking to enshrine protections for Pittsburgh residents in the city code.
Council Member Erika Strassburger of Squirrel Hill North, who introduced the legislation, said, “It’s just one more way of us saying, as a city, ‘We’ve got you. We are protecting you.”
The proposed amendments would simplify the city code regarding housing, employment and public accommodations. It would create a master list of protected classes and their definitions, including preferred language, education and life expectancy.
Throughout this year, Council has added multiple protections, including housing status, LGBTQIA identities and place of birth.
While the proposed amendments do not add any protected classes, it would add disparate impact. That would preserve the commission’s right to protect residents from policies that seem neutral but have a discriminatory impact on people, such as an apartment complex’s policy banning children which would affect families.
Shepherd said recent executive orders from the federal government call for federal agencies to dismiss disparate impact cases. As a result, municipalities across the country are disbanding agencies like the commission.
Council voted to move the legislation out of committee to be voted on during a legislative session.
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