Nikitra Bailey’s Testimony Before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services

Chair Hill, Ranking Member Waters, and other distinguished members of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, thank you for the opportunity to testify during today’s hearing. I am Nikitra Bailey, Executive Vice President of the National Fair Housing Alliance® (NFHA™). NFHA leads the fair housing movement by working to eliminate housing discrimination and ensure equitable housing opportunities for all people and communities. NFHA also represents over 200 community-based non-profit fair housing agencies throughout the nation.

Our nation is in the throes of a fair and affordable housing crisis impacting millions of people. The actions of the Trump Administration have caused chaos, fear, insecurity, dysfunction, and rising prices around the country. Instead of providing everyday people with practical solutions to the housing crisis, the administration is removing rungs on the ladders of opportunity for essential workers, including police, teachers, firefighters; and others who dedicate their lives to serving their communities. The Trump Administration’s haphazard executive actions are causing serious economic and personal injuries that will undermine our already fragile housing market, and, ultimately, our nation.

Housing is fundamental to the American Dream, and voters want elected leaders to quickly implement solutions to ensure they can fairly access opportunity and share in the nation’s prosperity. People are seeking solutions that will drive down the skyrocketing cost of housing and provide fair market rents, expand fair access to mortgage credit in underserved communities, reduce homeowners’ insurance costs, and produce the development of millions of desperately needed affordable housing units.

Rather, the Trump Administration’s actions are leaving people seeking housing free of discrimination unprotected, including disabled veterans, seniors, people with disabilities, families with children, survivors of domestic violence, and more.

Congress established fair housing as a national policy of the U.S. with the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 after the horrific assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Yet, the Trump Administration is dismantling our nation’s fair housing and fair lending infrastructure and making it costlier for everyday people to afford the American Dream despite demands for affordability.

The administration has failed to live up to its pledge to make housing cheaper and increase access to homeownership. Prior to the start of the administration, homeownership was on an upward trajectory for all communities.

• The Black homeownership rate grew 14.29 percent;
• The Asian American and Pacific Islander homeownership rate climbed 8.67 percent;
• The Latino homeownership rate increased 4.72 percent; and
• The White homeownership rate rose 1.78 percent.
  

This momentum is being reversed. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rolled back critical fair housing rules, eviscerated the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, closed field offices, and fired whistleblowers. It is leaving renters everywhere vulnerable to discrimination at a time when renters already face soaring rents and have nowhere to go. The Federal Housing Finance Agency abandoned Special Purpose Credit Programs that provided $82 million in reduced costs to 57,282 borrowers of all races from 2022 to 2024 and helped lenders circumvent systemic barriers that limit fair credit access for People of Color. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a proposal to gut a 50-year-old fair lending rule that ensures women can get a loan without requiring their husband’s or another male relative’s signature.

These actions are injecting unnecessary risk, locking out the people that the health of the housing system depends on. Over the next ten years, all future net household growth will be from households of color. If they are locked out of the housing finance system, the system will fail.

The Fair Housing Act provides the blueprint to increasing our nation’s supply of affordable housing. It is key to reforming exclusionary zoning that locks out renters, low-income people, and people of color from certain neighborhoods. It can drive inclusionary practices that permit entry-level homeownership opportunities and missing middle housing, including condominiums in triplexes, quadplexes, and accessory dwelling units.

Fair housing laws improve our communities block by block. These vital protections also strengthen our economy and make the nation more prosperous.

Now is the time for Congress to increase its oversight of the administration’s actions so that more people in America do not end up homeless. Congress must also pass comprehensive legislation with supply-side and demand-side solutions like Ranking Member Waters’ Housing Crisis Response Act to ensure that the housing needs of people living in rural, urban, and suburban communities are met. Only an all-of-the above strategy can truly tackle the crisis.

Thank you, and I look forward to answering your questions.