DENOUNCING HUD’S PROPOSED REVISIONS TO “DISPARATE IMPACT” STANDARD
Last week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released a proposed rule change that would severely weaken the Disparate Impact standard. Simply put, HUD’s proposed revision would make it easier for housing providers to avoid liability for discriminatory policies and practices unless victims can prove the discrimination was intentional. It will remove a powerful tool that the FHJC and other groups have used for decades to fight pernicious discrimination that is increasingly hidden and subtle.
Disparate Impact was upheld and clarified by the Supreme Court in 2015. Since then, successive administrations have engaged in a political back-and-forth, repeatedly attempting to either weaken or reinstate the standard. But this legal principle is far too critical to be treated as a political football. It empowers the fight against systemic housing discrimination, offering crucial protection for people with disabilities, domestic abuse survivors, veterans, and other vulnerable groups during an unprecedented crisis in fair and affordable housing.
This proposal is just the latest in a series of actions undertaken by HUD and the administration to reverse direction on decades of fair housing enforcement, including cutting the staff of the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) by 70%, withdrawing fair housing guidance documents from the HUD website, and effectively abdicating the government’s fair housing obligations.
To be clear, fair housing enforcement has never been fully funded or prioritized by the federal government, regardless of the party in power. But this administration has gone further, actively rolling back protections and dismantling safeguards—reversing decades of hard-fought progress and putting real people at risk of discrimination, displacement, and denial of opportunity.
The FHJC firmly denounces HUD’s proposed revision and stands in strong opposition to any attempted weakening of the Disparate Impact standard.
The mission of the FHJC, a nonprofit civil rights organization, is to eliminate housing discrimination; promote policies and programs that foster open, accessible, and inclusive communities; and strengthen enforcement of fair housing laws in the New York City region.