New White House Executive Orders Skirt Civil Rights Laws in its Claim to Promote Affordable Housing and Increased Lending Opportunities
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
New White House Executive Orders Skirt Civil Rights Laws in its Claim to Promote Affordable Housing and Increased Lending Opportunities
Washington, D.C.—The National Fair Housing Alliance® (NFHA™) is expressing its deep concern regarding two executive orders issued by the Trump Administration last week that claim to promote access to mortgage credit and remove regulatory barriers to spur the development of affordable homes. These orders will remove critical mortgage protections responsible for fairness and do little to nothing to boost the supply of affordable housing.
The two executive orders issued on Friday, March 13, 2026, 1) “Promoting Access to Mortgage Credit”; and 2) “Removing Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Home Construction” have a purported focus of increasing the supply of mortgages, made by community banks and other “smaller banks” with assets up to $100 billion, and the supply of single-family homes. In reality, this is cover for running much of the Project 2025 Playbook and threatens justice-based housing and transportation initiatives and those focused on providing energy efficiency in homes. The Trump Administration is continuing to rollback meaningful civil rights protections that expand fair access to housing and lending and ensures the safety and soundness of the housing finance system. These actions are being taken while the Administration is failing to address affordability—the top concern for millions of families.
Congress passed the Fair Housing Act of 1968 to establish fair housing as the national policy of the U.S. The intent was to remove all barriers to fair housing, including arbitrary and unnecessary lending practices. By reversing key fair lending and consumer protection requirements, the executive orders effectively do the opposite. They make communities less safe and vulnerable to the same predatory lending schemes that led to 2008 Housing and Financial Crisis.
“Full enforcement of the Fair Housing Act is key to addressing the nation’s fair and affordable housing crisis, which is harming millions of people in America,” said Nikitra Bailey, Executive Vice President of the National Fair Housing Alliance. “Our nation’s civil rights and consumer protection laws are essential to ensuring that all people can achieve the American Dream. The laws provide the blueprint to increase the supply of affordable housing and ensure that no person is unlawfully denied a mortgage. They are crucial to removing harmful zoning policies that make it impossible to increase the supply of affordable housing; reforming biased home appraisals that deny Black, Latino, and other families the ability to fairly build wealth; and transforming discriminatory underwriting, credit scoring, and AI systems.”
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s mortgage reforms returned safety to the housing market. Improvements to the Qualified Mortgage Rule and empowering the use of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act’s Special Purpose Credit Programs, started during 2019, created important opportunities for people of all backgrounds to fairly access mortgages. These actions were coupled with establishing innovative First-Generation programs, newer and non-discriminatory credit-score models, and reforms to appraisal bias and mortgage servicing through the end of 2024. Together, these actions created growth in homeownership rates for homeowners of all races from 2019 through the end of 2024. In fact, they enabled the Black homeownership rate to grow for the first time since the Housing and Financial Crisis of 2008.
Removing critical protections responsible for fairness in lending under the cover of making it easier for “smaller banks” with assets up to $100 billion to increase mortgage lending is a false choice. NFHA has long advocated for banks of all sizes to increase the supply of affordable, small dollar mortgages to ensure that First-Generation homebuyers could fairly access credit and outbid institutional investors buying up the affordable housing stock in cities throughout the nation. Weakening the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data reporting requirements will only provide cover for harmful practices and slow meaningful enforcement actions that make achieving homeownership more affordable for everyday people.
“Voters demanded comprehensive solutions to America’s fair and affordable housing crisis, not a piecemeal approach that would weaken fundamental civil rights without making everyday life more affordable. People want real solutions to drive down the cost of rent, mortgages, insurance, utilities, and taxes while expanding access to homeownership. The President’s recent executive orders will impede—rather than advance—meaningful solutions to assist everyday people struggling with increased housing costs.”
For interviews, please e-mail NFHA Senior Advisor for Communications, Marketing, and Education Julian Glover at JGlover@NationalFairHousing.org.
###
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.