HUD Plans to Kill Key Fair Housing Rule

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced plans to eliminate the Fair Housing Act’s disparate impact rule, which protects people and groups from being discriminated against by housing policies regardless of the purported intent of the law in question. 

According to an explainer by Richard J. Andreano, Jr. and John L. Culhane, Jr. in Consumer Finance Monitor, the rule, first adopted in 2013 during the Obama administration, was challenged in various court cases, then reinstated in its original version in 2023. 

According to the Federal Register, the 2013 rule “formalized legal tests that were not explicit in statute and imposed a presumption of unlawful discrimination when any variance in outcomes exists among protected classes, even without a showing of a facially discriminatory policy or discriminatory intent.” The agency is proposing to remove the discriminatory effects regulations and leave any question of discrimination up to the courts.

HUD is offering a 30-day public comment period on the rule’s retraction despite the agency’s policy of allowing 60 days for comment periods. “HUD notes the significant number of public comments it reviewed in connection with the prior three disparate impact rulemakings, and states that ‘[p]ublic comments covered a vast array of topics and issues, and many comments raised legal concerns including, for example, relevant court opinions, State and local law concerns, and interpretations of underlying legal authorities.’”