174 Organizations Warn Rescinding Fair Housing Protections Would Undermine Civil Rights and Worsen Housing Inequality
A coalition of 174 fair housing organizations demanded that the Department of Housing and Urban Development halt a proposed rule to eliminate certain fair housing protections.
The proposed rule would overturn the disparate impact rule, which says that housing practices must not have a disproportionately adverse impact on protected classes. HUD proposed rescinding the rule in January, arguing that it “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.”
On February 13, the coalition sent a 32-page letter to HUD Secretary Scott Turner imploring him to keep the “critically important” rule in place.
“This proposal is yet another attempt by the Trump Administration to weaken our nation’s civil rights laws,” Lisa Rice, CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance, said in a statement.
Trump Administration Expands Rollback of Civil Rights and Fair Housing Enforcement
Since taking office last January, the second Trump administration has made significant strides to roll back civil rights and diversity protections. For instance, one of the first executive orders signed by President Donald Trump eliminated federal diversity, equity, and inclusion rules. Trump has also said that the Civil Rights Movement resulted in a lot of white people being “very badly treated.”
Federal agencies have followed in the president’s footsteps as well. HUD recently proposed a series of changes to its Continuum of Care grant program, the largest source of federal funding for homeless services, that would have required grant awardees to eliminate their diversity initiatives. A federal judge in Rhode Island has stopped those changes from being implemented, but HUD appears to still be pursuing the changes behind the scenes.
HUD’s fair housing laws have also been swept up in the federal push against diversity. Last September, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration had made it “nearly impossible” for HUD’s fair housing office to do its work, which includes prosecuting landlords, real estate agents, and appraisers for discriminatory actions. The outlet spoke to multiple HUD lawyers who said the Trump administration had blocked them from communicating with clients and barred some from citing civil rights cases in their prosecutions.
“If you’re not enforcing the Fair Housing Act, then it’s just another dead law,” one of the lawyers told the NYT at the time.
Coalition Argues Rescinding Disparate Impact Rule Violates Fair Housing Act and Supreme Court Precedent
In the letter, the coalition argued that HUD’s attempt to eliminate the disparate impact rule is baseless and violates Supreme Court precedent. For instance, the coalition noted that HUD’s justification for the rule change rests on an executive order. They argued that this justification misunderstands the president’s authority to see that laws are faithfully executed rather than made.
They also described HUD’s proposal as a solution without a problem. HUD stated in its proposed rule that the disparate impact measure creates a “near insurmountable” presumption of discrimination, which the coalition argued is not supported by any evidence offered by the agency.
“Thus, not only is the Executive Order an inadequate basis for agency rulemaking that conflicts with Supreme Court interpretation of the relevant statute, but claims made by the Executive Order cannot be squared with how disparate impact actually works,” the letter reads in part. “Tellingly, HUD makes no attempt to ground its quotes from the Executive Order’s claims in the application of disparate impact since the passage of the FHA.”
Fair Housing Complaints Rise as HUD Proposes Eliminating Core Anti-Discrimination Protections
HUD’s attempt to overturn one of its core fair housing rules happened at a time when fair housing complaints were piling up across the U.S. Last year, the National Fair Housing Alliance found more than 32,000 fair housing complaints, representing a 17% climb over the last decade. That happened as the Trump administration slashed more than $60 million from HUD’s fair housing budget.
“These protections are critical to addressing exclusionary zoning and increasing the supply of affordable homes,” Rice said. “The proposal from HUD also follows an obtuse application of this tool (disparate impact) by the Department of Justice, where Attorney General Pam Bondi characterizes programs created to assist first-generation program beneficiaries as discriminatory because the first-generation tag might implicitly serve as a proxy for race. This administration’s logic simply does not add up.”
Gutting the disparate impact protections could also contribute to future cases of homelessness for people of color and elderly people, two groups who are becoming homeless with increasing frequency.
According to the latest federal data, there were more than 145,000 people over the age of 55 experiencing homelessness. Another 527,000 people of color experienced homelessness in 2024. Both figures could rise sharply as the rising cost of living continues to push low-income households to the brink.
“Fair housing laws improve communities block by block and make our nation more prosperous for everyone. This proposed rule should never see the light of day,” Rice said.
How You Can Help
The pandemic proved that we need to rethink housing in the U.S. It also showed that aid programs work when agencies and service organizations are provided with sufficient funds and clear guidance on how to spend aid dollars.
Contact your representatives. Tell them you support fair housing protections. We must ensure everyone has access to a safe and affordable home. These protections have proven effective at keeping people housed. This is the first step to ending homelessness once and for all.