On February 13, 2026, the Law Center submitted comments opposing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s proposal to eliminate its disparate impact regulations under the Fair Housing Act.
Disparate impact refers to policies that appear neutral on their face but disproportionately harm people based on protected characteristics such as race, national origin, sex, or disability without sufficient justification. The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed that disparate impact claims are valid under the FHA, emphasizing the statute’s continuing role in dismantling segregation. HUD’s 2013 rule established a clear burden-shifting framework that brought consistency and predictability to enforcement. Rescinding it would make such claims significantly harder to pursue.
The Law Center has long used disparate impact enforcement to protect the rights of our clients facing structural discrimination in housing and lending markets. In 2022, the Law Center sued a large Philadelphia landlord that refused to accept Housing Choice Vouchers in majority-white neighborhoods while encouraging voucher holders in majority-Black areas. The case resulted in a settlement requiring voucher acceptance across all its properties, expanding access to integrated neighborhoods. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice sued banks in Philadelphia and New Jersey for alleged redlining under the FHA, asserting that their lending practices denied equal access to credit in majority-Black and Latino communities. Those cases were resolved through consent orders requiring substantial investments in affected neighborhoods. When federal officials later sought to terminate the orders, the Law Center represented advocates who successfully opposed the termination in Philadelphia.
At a time of severe affordable housing shortages that cannot be disentangled from decades of housing policies that had a discriminatory impact, disparate impact remains a crucial method of fighting back. Eliminating HUD’s rule would weaken civil rights enforcement and undermine efforts to ensure fair, inclusive, and affordable housing.
