The Westchester County Human Rights Commission combats discrimination by implementing and enforcing the County’s Human Rights Law and Fair Housing Law and by empowering the community through its education and outreach efforts regarding discrimination and hate-related issues.
First, the Commission accepts, investigates and adjudicates complaints of discrimination in Westchester County in the areas of employment, housing, places of public accommodations, credit lending, and – as of Dec. 7, 2021 – discriminatory harassment.
Second, the Commission also works to build bridges and foster unity through a robust education and outreach campaign to the public on combating discrimination in all of its forms. The Commission’s Education and Empowerment Series has included programs on solidarity building, interactive bystander intervention training workshops, dismantling racism, recognizing and mitigating implicit bias, and how to talk to your friends and family about race and discrimination. The Commission’s most recent Human Rights Day program included a conversation with award-winning author and PBS host Celeste Headlee.
The County’s Human Rights Law and Fair Housing Law Have Been Pioneering
Westchester County has consistently been a leader. The Human Rights Law and the Fair Housing Law together prohibit discrimination based on seventeen (17) protected categories. The County’s Human Rights Law and the Fair Housing Law also prohibit retaliation.
From its inception, the Westchester County Human Rights Law has protected against discrimination based on sexual orientation – this protection was not added under State law for years and it only became protected under federal civil rights law recently. The County’s Human Rights Law and Fair Housing Law protect against discrimination based on actual or perceived citizenship status in employment, housing, places of public accommodations, credit lending and in discriminatory harassment.
The Commission’s jurisdiction is countywide and it covers many of the approximately 400,000 employees in the County and the one million plus residents in the County.
If you have experienced or witnessed discrimination or a hate-related incident in Westchester County, call our office at (914) 995-9500, contact us by email at or report an incident anonymously on the Report Incidents of Hate, Bias or Discrimination form. The Human Rights Commission does not share immigration status information with other agencies. The Human Rights Commission provides language assistance services.