---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO HOUSING STATUS DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES."
description: "Delaware law prohibits discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics in employment and professional activities. This Act would add \"housing status\" as a protected characteristic."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "152"
identifier: "HB 440"
citation: "Delaware HB 440 (152)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bryan Townsend", "Cyndie Romer", "Darius J. Brown", "Peter C. Schwartzkopf", "S. Elizabeth Lockman", "Sophie Phillips", "Spiros Mantzavinos", "Trey Paradee", "William Bush"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2024-06-06"
last_action: "2024-09-26"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/2755c8d1-b5de-4b60-8572-e359cae6f400"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=141518"
source_hash: "d68aa029b55dc64e6c5eb6edf4da5588c6535a4f2860205c846fe30fed225126"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 440 (152) — AN ACT TO AMEND THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO HOUSING STATUS DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES.

Delaware law prohibits discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics in employment and professional activities. This Act would add "housing status" as a protected characteristic.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=141518&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB440)

## Votes

- SM — **20–1** (pass) · upper
- SM — **35–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
- Cyndie Romer — primary (person)
- Darius J. Brown — primary (person)
- Peter C. Schwartzkopf — primary (person)
- S. Elizabeth Lockman — primary (person)
- Sophie Phillips — primary (person)
- Spiros Mantzavinos — primary (person)
- Trey Paradee — primary (person)
- William Bush — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2024-06-06** Introduced and Assigned to Labor Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2024-06-18** Reported Out of Committee (Labor) in House with 3 Favorable, 5 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2024-06-20** Passed By House. Votes: 35 YES 6 ABSENT `passage`
- **2024-06-20** Assigned to Executive Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2024-06-26** Reported Out of Committee (Executive) in Senate with 5 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2024-06-30** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 NO `passage`
- **2024-09-26** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/2755c8d1-b5de-4b60-8572-e359cae6f400`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).