24 CFR 100 - DISCRIMINATORY CONDUCT UNDER THE FAIR HOUSING ACT

Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, as amended (Fair Housing Act or Act), prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, or financing of dwellings and in other housing-related activities on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin. 1 HUD, to which Congress gave the authority and responsibility for administering the Fair Housing Act and the power to make rules implementing the Act, has long interpreted the Act to prohibit housing practices with a discriminatory effect, even where there has been no intent to discriminate. 1 This preamble uses the term “disability” to refer to what the Act and its implementing regulations term a “handicap.” The reasonableness of HUD's interpretation is confirmed by eleven United States Courts of Appeals, which agree that the Fair Housing Act imposes liability based on discriminatory effects. By the time the Fair Housing Amendments Act became effective in 1989, nine of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals had determined that the Act prohibits housing practices with a discriminatory effect even absent an intent to discriminate. Two other United States Courts of Appeals have since reached the same conclusion, while another has assumed the same but did not need to reach the issue for purposes of deciding the case before it. Although there has been some variation in the application of the discriminatory effects standard, neither HUD nor any Federal court has ever determined that liability under the Act requires a finding of discriminatory intent. The purpose of this proposed rule, therefore, is to establish uniform standards for determining when a housing practice with a discriminatory effect violates the Fair Housing Act.