Fair Housing Advocates Reach Agreement to Expand Accessible Housing Opportunities for Residents with Disabilities to Over 5,300 Apartments in the South

The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and the Tennessee Fair Housing Council (TFHC) have announced an agreement with Gross Residential Properties that will expand accessible rental housing opportunities in Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The agreement covers 13 properties containing more than 5,300 apartments in these states. Under the settlement, Gross Residential has committed to making changes at 13 apartment complexes to ensure they are accessible to people with disabilities.

The agreement comes after a joint investigation by NFHA and TFHC that led to a housing discrimination complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in March 2024. Through HUD’s complaint conciliation process, the parties quickly and efficiently reached an agreement that will notably increase accessible housing for persons with disabilities. Under the Fair Housing Act, it is unlawful for a housing provider to refuse to make reasonable accommodations necessary to provide persons with disabilities an equal opportunity to use and fully enjoy their homes.

Under the agreement, Gross Residential will: (1) Comply with the Fair Housing Act, including its accessibility provisions; (2) Make accessibility modifications to the 13 properties named in the complaint;(3) Notify residents in affected apartments of their right to request a modification to remove the below-sink cabinetry; (4) Develop no new multifamily units that include a kitchen design with an angled sink as depicted in the complaint; (5) Require staff to undergo training about building accessible apartments and the requirements of the Fair Housing Act; (6) Require an independent inspection of the accessibility modifications at the 13 apartment complexes and certify that they meet the accessibility standards; (7) Include in all residential leases a statement of Gross Residential’s commitment to fair housing laws and its policy to provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and residents who have disabilities; and (8) Pay $525,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees.

“People with disabilities in Middle Tennessee will have more housing options as a result of this agreement,” said Martie Lafferty, TFHC’s Executive Director. “Searching for a new place to live is stressful for everyone. Imagine finding an apartment you like and realizing you can’t use the kitchen because there’s not enough turning space for your wheelchair. We appreciate Gross Residential’s willingness to work with TFHC and NFHA to identify solutions that ensure people with disabilities can use and enjoy their apartment and the common areas of their housing community.”

NFHA and TFHC were represented by Sara Pratt, Esq. and Nick Abbott, Esq., of the noted civil rights law firm Relman Colfax PLLC. NFHA was represented by Morgan Williams, NFHA’s General Counsel, and Scott Chang, Senior Counsel on NFHA’s Enforcement Team. TFHC was represented by Martie Lafferty, TFHC’s Executive Director, and William Cox, TFHC’s Staff Attorney.

A copy of the Complaint is here.

A copy of Read the HUD Conciliation Agreement is here.

Federal Court Advances Landmark Housing Discrimination Case Against Deutsche Bank, Ocwen, and Altisource to Trial

 

On April 1, 2025, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and 19 fair housing organizations achieved a significant legal victory as a federal district court in Chicago denied the defendants’ motions for summary judgment in a critical 2018 housing discrimination lawsuit, National Fair Housing Alliance, et al. v. Deutsche Bank National Trust, et al. This decision now paves the way for the lawsuit against Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, Ocwen Financial Corp., and Altisource Portfolio Solutions, Inc. to proceed to trial. Plaintiffs allege that these defendants engaged in discriminatory practices by failing to uphold their duty to maintain and market foreclosed properties in Black and Latino neighborhoods to the same standards as those in predominantly white areas, in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA).

The lawsuit, filed in 2018 by NFHA and 19 other fair housing organizations, builds on an extensive 2010-2017 investigation in the wake of the mortgage foreclosure crisis. Evidence in the complaint shows stark inequities. The investigation found that homes in white neighborhoods were methodically maintained and marketed, while properties in Black and Latino neighborhoods were left in severe disrepair, contributing to safety hazards, declining property values, and worsening economic conditions in historically underserved communities. Plaintiffs presented evidence the Court has permitted to be presented at trial that these disparities in maintenance were attributable to neighborhood racial composition, not to non-racial factors, and that race played a statistically significant role in the differential treatment.

The over-120 page ruling, delivered by U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah, (N.D. Illinois) allows Plaintiffs’ disparate treatment and disparate impact claims to move forward against all defendants. The Court cited evidence of mortgage servicers Ocwen and Altisource abdicating their obligations to maintain properties, and a host of policies that may be shown at trial to cause negative outcomes in communities of color, compared to other neighborhoods. The Court held that trustees like Deutsche Bank can be held liable under the FHA for the discriminatory activities of their mortgage servicers. Judge Shah also recognized that plaintiffs had established sufficient standing to pursue the FHA case in federal court, finding that the critical services that plaintiffs offer were “sufficient to demonstrate that defendants’ REO conduct perceptibly impaired the organizations’ core activities.”

“This is a pivotal decision - not only for NFHA and our partners but for underserved communities across the country that have long endured neglect and inequitable treatment,” said Lisa Rice, President and CEO of NFHA. “This case isn’t just about holding Deutsche Bank, Ocwen, and Altisource accountable. It’s about beginning to repair some of the harm that continues to ripple through communities as a result of discriminatory housing practices. This decision carries the promise of hope for neighborhoods that were disproportionately targeted for predatory loans and negatively impacted by the foreclosure crisis. It’s a clear step forward in the fight for equity and justice.” Plaintiffs are represented by Soule, Bradtke & Lambert, Relman Colfax PLLC, and the Dane Law Firm.

Deutsche Bank in June 2013 settled a lawsuit with the city of Los Angeles for $10 million after it was accused of allowing hundreds of foreclosed properties under its ownership to fall into slum conditions, leading to the destabilization of whole communities.

The full order can be viewed here.

Read the April 3, 2025 NFHA press release.

Read the February 1, 2018 Banker & Tradesman article.

Civil and Human Rights Organizations Sue Trump Administration Over Executive Orders Banning Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility and Erasing Transgender People

The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) and Lambda Legal have filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the National Urban League, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago challenging three anti-equity executive orders from President Trump related to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and transgender people. LDF and Lambda Legal claim these orders will severely limit the organizations’ ability to provide critical social and health services such as HIV treatment, fair housing, equal employment opportunities, affordable credit, civil rights protections, and many others. This would harm countless people across the US, including people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and people living with HIV. The lawsuit claims that the administration is violating the organizations’ rights to free speech and due process and is engaging in intentional discrimination by issuing and enforcing the anti-equity orders.

The three executive orders being challenged would end equity-related grants and forbid federally-funded entities from engaging in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs, and from recognizing the existence of transgender people. These orders reverse decades of civil rights progress and pose an existential threat to the organizations that advocate for the civil rights of transgender people, and provide them shelter, services, and support.

“Fair housing is a national policy of the U.S. Our nation’s fair housing principles are embedded in the Constitution and civil rights statutes secured by the blood, sweat, tears, and lives of millions of people who fought to make our Declaration of Independence and Constitution real for everyone in this country. The Constitution and our civil rights laws are centered on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. The President cannot undo the Constitution or take away our rights by affixing a signature to an executive order,” said Lisa Rice, President and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance. “The administration’s Executive Orders and OMB funding freeze memorandum have caused chaos, fear, insecurity, dysfunction, and loss of rights. The Administration’s illegal actions put all people in harm’s way, driving up the cost of housing and leaving millions exposed to discrimination, harassment, and retaliation with no structure for protection. ‘Out of Many, One’ is our national motto -– any effort to divide, stoke fear and treat people unfairly is not in line with our nation’s founding principles. America is best when united and relentlessly pursuing a country where everyone, regardless of their background, has a fair chance at reaching the American Dream.”

“Beyond spreading inaccurate, dehumanizing, and divisive rhetoric, President Trump’s executive orders seek to tie the hands of organizations, like our clients, providing critical services to people who need them most,” said Janai Nelson, President and Director-Counsel of LDF. “The three orders we are challenging today perpetuate false and longstanding stereotypes that Black people and other underrepresented groups lack skills, talent, and merit - willfully ignoring the discriminatory barriers that prevent a true meritocracy from flourishing. We proudly stand with our clients and Lambda Legal against these unconstitutional orders and hope the court will act quickly so the arduous work of advancing and sustaining our multiracial democracy can continue without unlawful interference from the Trump administration.”

“These policies drip with contempt for transgender people, and pose a significant threat to critical health and HIV services that support marginalized communities, putting lives at risk,” said Jose Abrigo, Lambda Legal’s HIV Project Director. “These orders pose an existential threat to transgender people and the organizations that provide them with shelter and support. The orders defund organizations providing critical health and HIV services, and punish organizations for striving to improve the lives of Black people, people of color, and members of other marginalized communities. They are patently unconstitutional. Lambda Legal and LDF teamed up because the fights to end racism, the HIV epidemic, and anti-transgender bias are inseparable. For organizations like our plaintiffs providing these services, addressing these compounding barriers is essential to HIV prevention and care, and this policy would impede the work to eradicate and address the HIV epidemic.”

The lawsuit, National Urban League v. Trump, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claims that the executive orders violate the plaintiffs’ First Amendment right to free speech by censoring and chilling their views on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. The plaintiffs also claim that the executive orders are so vague that the organizations do not know what is and is not prohibited, in violation of their Fifth Amendment due process rights. Also, the executive orders discriminate against people of color, women, and LGBTQ+ people, with particular animus towards Black people and transgender individuals, in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection.

You can read the full complaint here.

Read the February 19, 2025 NFHA article.

Housing Discrimination Complaints in 2023 Continue to Increase Nationally

The national number of fair housing complaints rose to record numbers for the third year in a row. There were 34,150 fair housing complaints received in 2023, compared to 33,007 complaints in 2022, according to findings in the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA)'s 2024 Fair Housing Trends Report. There also was a sharp increase in the number of harassment complaints which jumped by 470.5% based on color and 114.9% on race.

The source of the data were 86 NFHA member organizations, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)'s 10 regional offices, and 77 state and local government agencies in HUD’s FHAP program. Information also was obtained from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Most of the millions of housing discrimination incidents each year go unreported because they are difficult to identify or document. All complaints also are not made because individuals might fear facing retaliation or eviction if they file a complaint. Therefore, the total number should be considered an undercount.

Private nonprofit fair housing organizations (FHOs) processed 75.5% of complaints, a 5.6% increase from 2022. These FHOs investigate fair housing complaints, collect data, provide fair housing counseling and education to consumers, and help clients file complaints. Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP) agencies processed 19.2% of complaints, HUD 5.1% of complaints, and the DOJ  0.1% of complaints. 

As in the previous year, discrimination based on disability accounted for the majority (52.6%) of complaints filed with FHOs, HUD, and FHAP agencies. There were 1,521 complaints of harassment reported, an increase of 66.2%. This is the highest number of harassment complaints reported since NFHA began reporting harassment-specific data in 2006.

Read the July 10, 2024 NFHA article.

Fed Regulator Warns AI & Machine Learning Can Worsen Lending Bias

AI & Automated Decisions Determine Credit Rating, Loan Terms, Hiring, Housing, etc. 

“While these technologies have enormous potential, they also carry risks of violating fair lending laws and perpetuating the very disparities that they have the potential to address,” the Fed’s vice chair of supervision, Michael Barr, said at the recent National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) 2023 national conference. While new artificial intelligence tools could cheaply expand credit to more people, machine learning and AI may also worsen bias or inaccuracies inherent in data used to train the systems or make inaccurate predictions.

As concerns grow over increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT, the nation’s financial watchdog says it’s working to ensure that companies follow the law when they’re using AI. Automated systems and algorithms help determine credit ratings, loan terms, bank account fees, and other aspects of our financial lives. AI also affects hiring, housing and working conditions.

In the past year, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau said it has fined banks over mismanaged automated systems that resulted in wrongful home foreclosures, car repossessions, and lost benefit payments, after the institutions relied on new technology and faulty algorithms.

One problem is transparency. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act, for example, financial providers legally must explain any adverse credit decision. Those regulations likewise apply to decisions made about housing and employment. Where AI make decisions in ways that are too opaque to explain, regulators say the algorithms shouldn’t be used. “I think there was a sense that, ‘Oh, let’s just give it to the robots and there will be no more discrimination,’” Chopra said. “I think the learning is that that actually isn’t true at all. In some ways the bias is built into the data.”

EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows said there will be enforcement against AI hiring technology that screens out job applicants with disabilities, for example, as well as so-called “bossware” that illegally surveils workers. The Fed recently announced two policy initiatives to address appraisal discrimination in mortgage transactions. Under the proposed rule, institutions that engage in certain credit decisions would be required to adopt policies, practices, and control systems that guarantee a “high level of confidence” in automated estimates and protect against data manipulation.

In April, 2023, about one-fourth of federal agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, announced their commitment to cracking down on automated systems that cause harmful business practices.

Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, said government intervention “will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful” AI systems, suggesting the formation of a U.S. or global agency to license and regulate the technology. The Electronic Privacy Information Center said the agencies should do more to study and publish information on the relevant AI markets, how the industry is working, who the biggest players are, and how the information collected is being used - like regulators have done with previous new consumer finance products and technologies.

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Read the July 19, 2023 The Hill article.

Read the June 15, 2023 Federal Times article.