Leading Civil Rights Organizations Urge HUD to Uphold Fair Housing Protections Against Disparate Impact Rollbacks

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Leading Civil Rights Organizations Urge HUD to Uphold Fair Housing Protections Against Disparate Impact Rollbacks

Washington, D.C. – On Friday, a coalition of leading civil and human rights organizations issued a joint letter to Scott Turner, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), expressing grave concern over reports that the agency intends to abandon multiple fair housing investigations and compliance actions. During a fair and affordable housing crisis in the United States, this action would be devastating for victims of housing and lending discrimination.

This letter comes after a ProPublica report revealed HUD is preparing to close at least seven major housing discrimination cases, including three in which the agency had already found that state and local governments under investigation had increased segregation and concentrated environmental hazards in communities of color. These cases challenge both disparate treatment and disparate impact discrimination, including claims under the long-established disparate impact provision of the Fair Housing Act. Civil rights leaders warn that such a reversal would be not only harmful to millions of Americans but is also legally indefensible.

“This retreat contradicts settled law, ignores HUD’s own regulations and represents a dangerous abdication of the agency’s mandate,” the groups wrote in the letter. “Reversing or dismissing meritorious fair housing cases is a dereliction of duty and a violation of sworn commitments to uphold and vigorously enforce the Fair Housing Act.”

The Fair Housing Act explicitly prohibits both intentional discrimination and policies that have a disparate impact on protected groups without sufficient justification. This critical protection – recognized by every federal appeals court and reaffirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Texas Dept. of Housing & Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project – requires that housing policies be fair in effect as well as intent. HUD’s regulations affirm this standard, and no Executive Order can override the law or agency rules codified at 24 C.F.R. 100.500.

“HUD has no discretion to disregard valid legal complaints,” they state. “The Fair Housing Act mandates that HUD investigate all jurisdictional complaints and determine whether reasonable cause exists. Ignoring this duty undermines HUD’s obligation to affirmatively further fair housing and violates the statute’s core purpose.”

The groups have also requested a meeting with HUD leadership to address these urgent concerns and ensure that the agency remains in full compliance with federal law.

Read the full letter.

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The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) is the country’s only national civil rights organization dedicated solely to eliminating all forms of housing and lending discrimination and ensuring equal opportunities for all people. As the trade association for 200 fair housing and justice-centered organizations throughout the U.S. and its territories, NFHA works to dismantle longstanding barriers to equity and build diverse, inclusive, well-resourced communities.