Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) mission statement “is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.” While playing a vital role in securing dwellings, they are not immune to the occasional bureaucratic error.
Recently, HUD eliminated a Fair Housing Act rule. While potentially controversial, the 2020 regulation never took effect. A lawsuit resulted in a preliminary injunction that stayed the implementation. The move restores a 2013 rule without changing any practices involving compliance with the final rule.
Replacing a rule
In its place, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced plans to restore the 2013 Restoring HUD’s Discriminatory Effects Standard to the Fair Housing Act. Leadership believes that it is more consistent with the FHA and its application in courts and the agency for more than 50 years.
The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination caused by race, color, religion, national origin, sex – including sexual orientation and gender identity – and disability. The doctrine serves as a vital tool for addressing policies result in systemic inequality in housing potentially adopted with discriminatory intent.
Simply put, they believe that the long-awaited final rule is a significant step in implementing broad remediation to eliminate potentially discriminatory practices that continue nationwide. A specific emphasis is on people of color, and the disabled denied equal access to homeownership and rental housing.
In addition, the act will contest policies involving zoning requirements, lending policies, property insurance access, and criminal records policies.
The rule will finally go into effect 30 days post-publishing in the Federal Register.