Rolling Back Civil Rights Protections Could Make it Harder for Low-Income Renters to Find Housing
The Trump Administration has proposed yet another rule that could potentially roll back civil rights laws that help fight discrimination in housing, education and many other areas of American life. The rule would significantly change the standards by which a person or entity can sue to end discriminatory practices through what is now known as the “disparate impact” claim. If the proposed rule is passed, it would potentially weaken many civil rights laws that currently protect people who have historically experienced racism and discrimination.
Disparate impact refers to policies or practices that seem neutral or fair on the surface, but they have many consequences that can negatively and disproportionately affect certain groups or people. While the dismantling of the disparate impact claim causes many concerns for advocates in education, transportation and environmental organizations, there is a larger concern for housing advocates as they were roughly 29,000 reported housing discrimination complaints across the country in 2017 alone.
Residential segregation still persists at alarming rates in the U.S., the legacy of decades of racially discriminatory housing policies of the past, along with other factors. This means that people of color are more likely to live in communities that aren’t meeting their needs, with worse schools, higher crime rates, and lower property values. The Trump Administration’s proposed rule would make the existing challenges worse, as it will make it harder for someone to bring a discrimination case to court and win, because they would have to navigate a difficult five-step process that would be hard for the average citizen to manage alone.
Additionally, the proposed rule would erode the Fair Housing Act, a policy that has been in place for 50 years and bans housing discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, familial status, disability and religion. If approved, the proposed changes would significantly tip the scales in favor of landlords, allowing them to continue the use of policies that violate the Fair Housing Act. Subsequently, Trump’s proposal is also in direct conflict with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s statutory obligation to advance fair housing.
This proposed rule would have negative implications for low-income renters and individuals that utilize rental subsidies as it could prevent them from living in certain neighborhoods. According to recent data, Black families using federal housing vouchers to cover a portion of their rent payment experience greater challenges with renting a unit in low poverty neighborhoods than any other racial group. If the proposed rule is passed, people who qualify for housing assistance would have a more difficult time finding a home to rent without the possibility of court actions to address any cases of discrimination.
Furthermore, weakening the disparate claim will also affect where new affordable homes are built as this claim has been used to challenge zoning rules that perpetuate racial segregation of communities of color. Housing advocates also point out that the weakening the disparate claim could lead to a return of predatory mortgage lending practices that charged excessive rates to people of color and people with disabilities at a time when African American homeownership dropped to a record low of 40.6 percent this year.
Trump’s proposed rule comes at a time when many districts in Maryland are considering the HOME Act, a bill that seeks to reduce housing discrimination by preventing landlords from rejecting tenants solely based on their source of income. Anne Arundel County passed the bill earlier this year, while Baltimore County and Baltimore City passed a weaker version that outlaws this form of discrimination only under certain circumstances. Montgomery, Howard and Fredrick counties have had these protections in place for a number of years. The federal government has ordered many districts nationwide to introduce the HOME Act each year until it passes. This order by the federal government is a direct result of decades of complaints alleging discriminatory housing and zoning practices that have contributed to significant racial and socioeconomic segregation in Maryland and nationwide as a whole.
Increasing the availability of affordable housing is essential to ensuring that all Marylanders can achieve their full potential. According to a 2014 Department of Housing and Community Development report, for every 100 low-income renters in Maryland, there are only 38 affordable units available. Because of this, families need housing subsidies to be able to access housing that would otherwise be out of their price range.
Some of Maryland’s districts are taking steps in the right direction to increase affordable housing and to stop putting families at risk for economic disaster. However, if Trump’s proposed rule is passed, it could leave some Marylanders struggling to find affordable housing, as well as make it difficult to win housing discrimination cases in court. The comment period for the ruling has ended, but this is definitely a proposal that all Marylanders should keep paying attention to until a final ruling is made.
