Statement from the National Fair Housing Alliance on FHFA’s Repeal of its Fair Lending Rule
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Statement from the National Fair Housing Alliance on FHFA’s Repeal of its Fair Lending Rule
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Fair Housing Alliance® (NFHA™) strongly condemns the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA’s) decision to repeal its Fair Lending, Fair Housing, and Equitable Housing Finance Plans Regulation (Fair Lending Rule) for two of the nation’s largest financial institutions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) and the 11 Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs). The Fair Lending Rule established a common-sense regulatory approach to ensuring that the Enterprises and FHLBs comply with fair housing, fair lending, and consumer protection laws. The rule also required the Enterprises to adopt Equitable Housing Finance Plans (the Plans) to overcome barriers to housing opportunities for underserved communities. With the rule, FHFA was exercising responsibility to meet its statutory duty under the Fair Housing Act of 1968 to “affirmatively further fair housing.” At a time when homeownership is increasingly out of reach for many families, FHFA has chosen to abandon a proven framework for accountability, innovation, and fair access to credit. FHFA’s retreat from its fair housing and fair lending responsibilities for the Enterprises and FHLBs undermines significant efforts to increase homeownership access for low- and moderate-income households in rural, urban, and suburban communities during a worsening fair and affordable housing crisis.
In addition to FHFA retreating from its supervisory responsibilities and undermining a fair and thriving housing market, repeal of the rule is likely to harm borrowers directly. From 2022 to 2024, the Equitable Housing Finance Plans (the Plans), including Special Purpose Credit Programs (SPCPs), generated an estimated $17.2 billion in economic activity, expanding access to sustainable homeownership, supporting renters, and strengthening underserved communities excluded from the housing finance system. NFHA advanced many of the elements contained in the Plans to help substantially increase the homeownership rates for all market segments, and NFHA’s 2025 State of Equitable Homeownership Report shows that the homeownership rate increased for borrowers of all races from 2019 through the end of 2024 because of intentional policies like the Enterprises’ Equitable Housing Finance Plans.
In September 2025, NFHA, joined by 20 national organizations and 38 state and local civil rights, consumer advocacy, and housing justice organizations, submitted a letter urging FHFA to preserve the Fair Lending Rule. Eliminating the Plans does not advance fairness or innovation; it undermines both by removing clear expectations, transparency, and oversight from the entities that dominate the U.S. mortgage market and received a taxpayer-funded rescue following the Housing and Economic Crisis of 2008.
In its final rule, FHFA asserted that repealing the rule does not preclude voluntary initiatives, such as expanding access to affordable rental housing, SPCPs, or supporting natural disaster rebuilding. But this claim is not a substitute for regulatory guidance, oversight, and enforcement to ensure compliance with the law, which is the standard practice for federal financial regulators, like FHFA. While there was nothing prohibiting the Enterprises from engaging in these activities before the requirement for Equitable Housing Finance Plans, they only implemented serious, focused actions to address these issues after implementation of the Plans.
In fact, the Enterprises never developed SPCPs until the Plans had been put in place, despite SPCPs being around since 1976 when Congress amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). FHFA claims that exercising its supervisory responsibility as a financial regulator to ensure fair lending and fair housing is unnecessary because other agencies are doing this work. This assertion rings hollow. Other agencies, in fact, are not doing the work—as made clear by the Administration’s aggressive efforts to shutter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; weaken the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice; dismantle fair housing enforcement at the Department of Housing and Urban Development; and to adopt a rule that would make most SPCPs illegal and eliminate the longstanding disparate impact standard under ECOA.
History shows that voluntary measures alone are insufficient to address systemic discrimination or to meet the statutory duty to affirmatively further fair housing. Weakening these safeguards sends a troubling signal to borrowers, communities, and the people of America that equity and accountability are optional—even as housing costs rise, disparities widen, and public trust is eroded.
NFHA urges FHFA to reverse course, restore the 2024 Fair Lending Rule, and reaffirm its statutory responsibility to ensure that the housing finance system works fairly for all communities, not just a privileged few.
For interviews, please e-mail NFHA Senior Advisor for Communications, Marketing, and Education Julian Glover at JGlover@NationalFairHousing.org
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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 over 170 fair housing and justice-centered organizations and individuals throughout the U.S. and its territories, NFHA works to dismantle longstanding barriers to equity and build diverse, inclusive, well-resourced communities.