NFHA strongly condemns HUD’s rollback of rights for disabled residents
Disability complaints make up the majority of housing discrimination cases. HUD’s new order tells those residents the deadline passed before they moved in.
The following is a statement from NFHA’s Executive Vice President Nikitra Bailey:
“More than 32,000 housing discrimination complaints were filed in 2024, and disability-related complaints made up 54.6 percent of all complaints. Decades after the Fair Housing Act amendments and the Americans with Disabilities Act, too many residential buildings continue to be built inaccessibly and in violation of the law, preventing people with disabilities from living there comfortably. This new order from HUD tells those families their rights ran out before they even moved into the apartment that was not built with their needs in mind.
HUD is now saying that a building that shuts disabled people out becomes untouchable just one year after the certificate of occupancy is signed. The light switch is still too high for the elderly resident. The bathroom still can’t fit the veteran’s wheelchair. But now, HUD won’t take the complaint of the person living with this every day just because an invisible clock expired before they even signed the lease. This about-face drastically limits the rights of people with disabilities throughout our country. And contrary to HUD’s claims, this won’t do anything to make housing more affordable. Plenty of law-abiding housing providers build and operate accessible and affordable units every year. All this does is provide a pass to the bad actors who decided not to follow the law and locked people with disabilities out of housing in the process.
Once again, this Administration protects corporate interests over the rights of everyday people. Instead of providing solutions to the nation’s fair and affordable housing crisis, it is trying to create distractions from its own failed housing policies—tariff and immigration-related building costs, stubbornly high interest rates, assaults on people’s fair housing rights, and more—by blaming the people most impacted.
We will continue to bring these cases, and we will keep pushing HUD to withdraw this guidance.”
###
About the National Fair Housing Alliance
The National Fair Housing Alliance leads a coalition that works to build inclusive, well-resourced, and resilient communities; expand equitable opportunities; and end housing discrimination.