LexBlog, September 11, HUD issues final rule revising its FHA disparate impact standards to reflect SCOTUS Inclusive Communities decision; Ballard Spahr to hold Oct. 7 webinar
On September 4, 2020, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) issued a final rule revising its 2013 Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) disparate impact standards (“2013 Rule”) to reflect the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., which held that disparate impact claims are cognizable under the FHA. The final rule also establishes a uniform standard for determining when a housing policy or practice with a discriminatory effect violates the FHA and clarifies that application of the disparate impact standard is not intended to affect state laws governing insurance. The final rule largely adopts the proposed disparate impact rule HUD issued in 2019, with several clarifications and certain substantive changes. In the preamble to the final rule, HUD noted that the agency received an unprecedented 45,758 comments on the proposed rule.
