HUD's Reconsideration of its Disparate Impact Rule: Background, Analysis and Potential Implications

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is reconsidering its disparate impact rule that it adopted under the Fair Housing Act (FairHA) in 2013.

This webinar will:

• Examine the history behind the rule and challenges to the rule by the insurance industry.
• Address how the rule differs from the June 2015 decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. that disparate impact claims can be brought under the FairHA. While the Court determined that such claims can be brought under the FairHA, it indicated the need for a “robust causality requirement” to ensure that a mere racial imbalance, standing alone, does not establish a prima facie case of disparate impact, which is needed to protect defendants from being held liable for racial disparities that they did not create.
• Address statements by Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney that the CFPB plans to reexamine requirements under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) in light of Inclusive Communities, which suggests that the CFPB may reassess disparate impact claims under ECOA, and whether actions by HUD in reconsidering its disparate impact rule may affect the CFPB reassessment of ECOA.
• Briefly address H.R. 6220 and other possible Congressional responses to any changes that HUD might make to the rule.