The Department of Housing and Urban Development has finalized a rule that will make it easier for civil rights attorneys to prove that a mortgage company is engaging discriminatory lending practices.
“Through the issuance of this rule, HUD is reaffirming its commitment to enforcing the Fair Housing Act in a consistent and uniform manner,” said HUD secretary Shaun Donovan. “This will ensure the continued strength of one of the most important tools for exposing and ending housing discrimination.”
In a fair lending case, the plaintiffs will not longer have to prove that a lender intentionally discriminated against minorities or other groups. They can show discriminatory impact based on statistics.
Liability under the Fair Housing Act may be established by “showing that a neutral policy or practice has a discriminatory effect even if such a policy or practice was not adopted for a discriminatory purpose,” the final rule says.
Justice Department attorneys have used this legal standard for many years to bring
“HUD is maintaining well-established legal precedent and formalizing a nationally consistent, uniform burden-shifting test for determining whether a given housing practice has an unjustified discriminatory effect,” said John Trasvina, HUD’s assistant secretary for fair housing.
