The FHJC designs, promotes, and advocates for policies and programs that further its mission.
Policy Goals
Our mission is the foundation, and our goals shape our overall policy direction and vision.
Policy Priorities
We’re focusing on implementing reforms at the local, state, and federal levels to turn our goals into reality.
Examples of our Policy Work
We recognize that it is through partnerships and relationship building that we can advance this mission.
For more about our policy work including announcements, testimonies, papers, and briefs, visit the Policy page of our News section.
Interested in helping shape fair housing policy? We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts and make your voice heard by engaging with our policy team.
Policy Goals
Expanding Housing Choice
Work to ensure that all people, including populations whose housing choices have historically been restricted or are currently limited, are better able to access and enjoy the full range of housing opportunities and communities that exist in the region. Place matters. Expanding housing choice can increase access to opportunities, reduce inequalities, and enable people to enjoy the social, professional, and economic benefits of integrated living.
Affirmatively Further Fair Housing to Create More Open, Accessible, and Inclusive Communities
Reduce residential racial segregation, promote equitable development including in communities that have been historically disinvested or continue to be deprived of resources, amenities, benefits, and/or services, and foster the creation of more open, accessible, and inclusive communities. Residential segregation, concentrated poverty, and housing discrimination contributes to increased homelessness, fuels gentrification and displacement, and nourishes a host of other harmful social, educational, and economic inequalities. Efforts to affirmatively further fair housing should be aimed at dismantling barriers to housing choice, promoting residential integration, and repairing the harm that has been and continues to be inflicted on people and communities of color.
Strengthen Fair Housing Enforcement
Ensure that populations facing housing discrimination are adequately protected and that fair housing laws are vigorously enforced. The current passive, largely complaint-responsive, and under-resourced approach to government enforcement fails to document subtle and systemic forms of housing discrimination and leaves some of the most vulnerable and marginalized populations unprotected. A more pro-active, systemic, and well-resourced enforcement approach, with testing as the centerpiece, can more effectively document and eliminate discriminatory housing practices and achieve greater compliance with fair housing laws.
NAVIGATE TO: Policy Goals | 2024-2025 Policy Priorities | Examples of our Policy Work
Strengthening Enforcement of Fair Housing Laws
Increased Engagement and Funding for Testing and Fair Housing Enforcement
We will increase our engagement with local, state, and federal government enforcement and advocate for increased funding for qualified, full-service fair housing organizations with expertise in systemic fair housing testing and other fair housing enforcement expertise.
Full Enforcement of Accessibility Requirements
We back stronger regulation of adult homes and assisted living programs by local, state, and federal government agencies. We will advocate for proactive state and local government inspection of construction plans and new developments to ensure compliance with applicable accessibility requirements and the abandonment of “self-certification” by architects, engineers, or developers.
Strengthen Vicarious Liability in the New York State Human Rights Law
We encourage New York State to amend Section 296 of the Executive Law to expressly identify vicarious liability as a theory of liability for housing discrimination prohibited by the New York State Human Rights Law. This will allow housing owners and residential real estate agencies, in appropriate circumstances, to be held accountable for the discriminatory conduct of their agents, which will increase compliance with the nondiscrimination law and help to facilitate systemic change.
Champion Co-op Disclosure Laws
We urge the enactment of state and local “Co-op Disclosure” laws, which would require housing cooperatives to provide upon request, in writing, the reason(s) for rejecting a prospective buyer/renter.
Regulate Tenant Screening Services
Tenant screening practices are creating discriminatory barriers to housing access by using inaccurate information, overbroad screening criteria, and algorithmically generated risk scores that lack transparency, accountability, or relevancy, among other suspect practices. We will advocate for regulation and oversight of tenant screening services to protect all renters, with the goal of ensuring equal access to housing, including for those disparately harmed by the screening practices such as people of color, people with disabilities, and people who rely on government assistance .
Eliminating Housing Discrimination
Add “Conviction Record” to State, City, and Local Laws
The New York State Human Rights Law prohibits discrimination based on arrest records in housing decisions. We support including “conviction record” as a protected characteristic in housing discrimination provisions in state, city, and local laws.
Fortify State Law Prohibiting Discrimination Based on Source of Income
We support legislation to clarify and strengthen source of income provisions in the New York State Human Rights Law. For example, housing providers continue to exclude renters who rely on government assistance by requiring unnecessary background checks and imposing overly rigid income requirements despite the applicant’s secure source of income to pay the rent.
Fight Credit Discrimination
We will advocate for the passage of State legislation that will prohibit residential landlords from automatically denying applicants based on their credit history or score.
Improve Homeowner and Tenant Protections
We support the enactment of state and local prohibitions of deceptive, predatory, or unfair practices that have a discriminatory effect in the rental and sales market, such as predatory evictions or the non-renewal of residential leases.
Encourage the passage of a Federal Source of Income Law
We support the enactment of federal law to protect millions of Americans from being denied housing because of their lawful source of income, including recipients of federal, state, and local government assistance.
Restrict Housing Providers from Demanding Brokers’ Fees
Existing Statutes allow housing providers, such as landlords, sub-lessors, and grantors to charge voucher or subsidy holders brokers’ fees. This ultimately deters and restricts individuals and families who use government housing assistance from accessing housing opportunities. We support legislation prohibiting housing providers from charging prospective tenants brokers’ fees.
Fostering Inclusive Communities
Advance a Statewide “Equitable Share” Housing Plan
We seek the enactment of a statewide “Equitable Share” legislative housing plan, which would mandate every community to ensure that at least 10% of its existing housing stock is affordable.
Establish a New York State Zoning Appeals Board
We support legislation that would create a Zoning Appeals Board with the authority to override local zoning laws that are discriminatory or present a barrier to the development of affordable housing.
Expand Housing Mobility Assistance Programs
We encourage the expansion of mobility assistance programs, to assist housing voucher holders access housing opportunities in well-resourced neighborhoods and communities.
Legalize and Increase Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)
We support the inclusion of fair housing protections in any legislation regarding the regulation, oversight, and production of safe, habitable, and environmentally sound Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), which have the potential to expand housing supply and create more inclusive communities.
Link Fair Housing Advocacy to School Integration
We advocate for more targeted fair housing enforcement in areas that have well-resourced schools so that increased housing opportunities are opened to people of color.
NAVIGATE TO: Policy Goals | Policy Priorities | Examples of our Policy Work
Examples of our Policy Work
Below are examples of some of the ways FHJC has been working to advance these policy priorities:
Led a Statewide Housing Roundtable and Published Five-Year Equity Progress Report
The FHJC and Enterprise Community Partners collaborated to convene a Statewide Affordable and Fair Housing Roundtable to explore housing issues across the region and find policy areas of common concern. Click here to learn more about the work of the Roundtable. Click here to download the Roundtable’s 2019 policy agenda, “Closing the Divide: Creating Equitable, Inclusive and Affordable Communities” In 2024, we published the progress report, which assesses advances made in New York in the five years since and outlines the barriers that persist, and which must be at the forefront of policymakers’ minds. Click here to access the progress report.
Released Preliminary Comments on the City of Yes Initiative
The FHJC released preliminary comments on the City of Yes initiative on April 24, 2024, shortly after New York City Mayor Adams announced a new zoning reform proposal called “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity.” The proposal aimed to address the current housing crisis by allowing for the construction of “a little more housing in every neighborhood.” In our statement, we urge the City to take these steps to ensure that the City of Yes initiative is fair and equitable for all City residents. Read the full letter here.
Submitted Federal Comments on AFFH and Tester Protections
The FHJC has submitted comments in response Notices of Proposed Rulemaking from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Read the FHJC’s comments in response to HUD’s March 3, 2025, Federal Register Notice, Docket No. FR–6519–I–01; Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Revisions. Read the FHJC’s comments submitted January 11, 2024 in response to HUD’s Federal Register Notice, Notice of Proposed Rule Making; “Removing Criminal Conviction Restrictions for Testers in FHIP- and FHAP-Funded Testing Programs”.
Testified Before the New York State Senate on Testing and Legal Reforms
On January 30, 2025, FHJC joined other fair housing organizations in requesting that $4 million be allocated to NYS HCR’s Fair Housing Testing Program. Read the one-pager here. The FHJC submitted written testimony for the New York State Senate and Assembly Joint Legislative Budget Hearing on Housing on February 27, 2025. We requested that the Legislature restore NYS HCR’s Fair Housing Testing, Education, and Networking program and support Senator Kavanagh’s efforts to codify this program into permanent law. Additionally, we urged the codification of the Disparate Impact Standard in New York’s Human Rights Law (HRL) and the strengthening of the Source of Income Law by amending the HRL to clarify any lawful source of income (including vouchers and public assistance) is exempt from income requirements and enacting the Vicarious Liability for Housing Discrimination Act of 2025. Read the full comment here.
Joined City Hall Rally Against Federal HUD Cuts
FHJC’s Policy Director, Britny McKenzie spoke at the March 2025 #HandsOffHousing Rally with a coalition of housing advocates and tenant leaders on the steps of City Hall to oppose many recent federal actions threatening the stability and affordability of housing for millions, particularly in New York. At the time DOGE proposed to terminate at least half of all HUD employees, with specific offices facing even steeper reductions:
- Office of Community Planning and Development: 84% cut
- Office of Fair Housing: 76% cut
- Office of Policy Development and Research: 75.5% cut
- Office of Public and Indian Housing: 50% cut to dozens of HUD field offices will reportedly close, likely leaving New York with no local presence
- HUD has cut grants to two thirds of nonprofits providing Fair Housing assistance and enforcement. The page on HUD’s website that previously contained Fair Housing Act information was replaced with “page not found.”
NAVIGATE TO: Policy Goals | 2024-2025 Policy Priorities | Examples of our Policy Work