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Monday, July 15, 2024
MCCR's 60th Anniversary Celebration of the Civil Rights Act will be on October 22nd
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
The Fair Lending Report of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for 2023 is Released
The June 2024 Fair Lending Report describes CFPB's fair lending activities in enforcement, guidance and rulemaking, interagency coordination, and outreach and activities for calendar year 2023. It is submitted to Congress. The fair lending activities of the CFPB are summarized here.
Fair Lending Activities
In 2023 the CFPB focused much of its fair lending supervision efforts on: mortgage origination (including redlining, property valuation bias, and HMDA and Regulation C compliance); credit card marketing and the use of alternative data in digital marketing; and on the use of automated systems and models, sometimes marketed as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning models, in credit card
originations.
originations.
The CFPB’s 2023 mortgage origination work continued to focus on redlining (intentional discrimination against applicants and prospective applicants living or seeking credit in minority neighborhoods, including by discouragement). The CFPB’s mortgage work also included assessing potential discrimination in mortgage underwriting and pricing processes, including assessing whether there were disparities in application, underwriting, and pricing processes, and whether there were weaknesses in fair lending-related compliance management systems. The CFPB’s mortgage origination work also included reviewing residential property appraisal service providers to identify risks that may arise due to potential discrimination or bias as well as HMDA data integrity and validation reviews.
The CFPB continued to assess whether lenders complied with the adverse action notice requirements of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Regulation B and evaluated whether lenders maintain policies and procedures that unlawfully exclude property on the basis of geography in underwriting decisions, unlawfully exclude certain types of income, and treat criminal history in an unlawful manner.
Fair Lending Enforcement
In fair lending enforcement, the CFPB:
(1) Did two ECOA-related public enforcement actions, relating to discrimination on the basis of race and national origin, one against Citibank N.A. (Citibank) and the other against Colony Ridge Development, LLC, and Colony Ridge BV, LLC, and affiliate mortgage company Colony Ridge Land, LLC (collectively, the Colony Ridge defendants).
(2) Took public enforcement actions against two repeat offenders for
reporting false, erroneous, or incorrect HMDA data: Freedom Mortgage Corporation (Freedom
Mortgage) and Bank of America, N.A.
(3) On October 10, 2023, the CFPB filed a lawsuit against Freedom Mortgage, a residential
mortgage loan originator and servicer, alleging that it submitted legally-required mortgage loan
data that were riddled with errors.
(4) On November 28, 2023, the CFPB issued an order against Bank of America for routinely
submitting falsified HMDA data.5 The CFPB found that between 2016 and late 2020, hundreds
of Bank of America’s loan officers failed to ask applicants for their race, ethnicity, and sex, as
required by law, and instead falsely recorded that the applicants chose not to provide this
information.
(5) In 2023, the CFPB issued several fair lending-related Matters Requiring Attention and entered
Memoranda of Understanding directing entities to take corrective actions that the CFPB will
monitor through follow-up supervisory actions. In these communications, the CFPB directed
mortgage lenders to correct violations relating to redlining, including by institutions providing
consumer remediation designed to spur lending in redlined areas.
Memoranda of Understanding directing entities to take corrective actions that the CFPB will
monitor through follow-up supervisory actions. In these communications, the CFPB directed
mortgage lenders to correct violations relating to redlining, including by institutions providing
consumer remediation designed to spur lending in redlined areas.
HUD Approves Settlement with California Housing Providers Resolving Claim of Disability Discrimination
The HUD-brokered Conciliation Agreement between Burbank Housing Management Corporation, Burbank Housing Development Corporation, BHDC Parkwood Apartments, LLC, Oak Ridge Apartments Associates LP, and James Perez, requires the respondents to pay $41,500 in compensation to the complainant. The Agreement resolves allegations that the respondents were in noncompliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and also violated the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against tenants with disabilities. Read the Agreement here.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) forbids the exclusion or discrimination of qualified individuals based on disability in any program receiving federal financial assistance, including those from HUD.
The matter began with a complaint alleging that the Sonoma County, California, based housing providers interfered with the rights of tenants with disabilities to obtain reasonable accommodations, and that the respondents, who are recipients of HUD and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) funding, were in noncompliance with Section 504. The Respondents denied the allegations in the Complaint and agreed to settle the matter. The Conciliation Agreement does not constitute an admission of guilt by the Respondents and no determination has been issued by HUD in this matter.
Under the terms of the Agreement, the housing providers will pay $41,500 to the complainant. The housing providers will also ensure their reasonable accommodation policies are in compliance with the Fair Housing Act and Section 504 and that they process reasonable accommodation requests in a timely manner. HUD and USDA will monitor the Agreement.
People who believe they have experienced discrimination may file a complaint by contacting HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at (800) 669-9777 (voice) or (800) 877-8339 (Relay) or at hud.gov/fairhousing.
Detroit Redlining Conference on September 24th
The Detroit Reinvestment Coalition, Community Development Advocates of Detroit (CDAD, and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) will convene a Just Economy: Detroit on September 24th. The one-day summit will center a question with no simple answer: What will it take to make a Just Economy a local reality in Detroit? The legacy of redlining continues to reverberate throughout the city through uneven investment in community development, inequitable impacts of climate change and a shortage of housing within reach of the average Detroiter. Join local and national leaders to explore opportunities to change the flow of capital in the city. |
While this event is focused on the Detroit metro area, it may still be beneficial for Marylanders to attend. For additional information on Just Economy: Detroit, visit here. Read the July 9, 2024 NCRC notice of Just Economy: Detroit.
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Wednesday, July 3, 2024
PRRAC Advocates Fairer Screening Rules for HUD-Assisted Housing
On June 10, 2024, the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC) submitted comments in support of HUD’s proposed rule to eliminate discriminatory uses of criminal records in screening tenants for admission to HUD-funded housing (89 Fed. Reg. 25332). PRRAC is a civil rights policy organization dedicated to the cause of fair housing, and the urgent need to address the continuing segregation of many low-income families of color in high poverty, low opportunity neighborhoods, a condition that is perpetuated by housing, land use, transportation, and education policies at every level of government.
PRRAC's comments included strong support for the elimination of the long-standing (and illegal) practice of re-screening voucher tenants who move from one public housing authority's "area of operation" to another PHA’s town. PRRAC also stressed the relationship of government-sponsored segregation and disproportionate policing and arrests in predominantly Black and Latino communities as a relevant fair housing consideration in HUD’s reassessment of the use of criminal records.
A few weeks after HUD issued the proposed rule, HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity also issued helpful general guidance on fair housing impacts of some common, but often discriminatory, tenant screening practices.
The PRRAC also recently released an update of its "State, Local, and Federal Laws Barring Source-of-Income Discrimination (originally published as Appendix B to Expanding Choice: Practical Strategies for Building a Successful Housing Mobility Program, 2013), June 2024. According to the Center for Policy Alternatives’ calculations, at the time the original report was released, source of income discrimination laws protected 34% of voucher holders in the nation. With the addition of seven states since December, 2018 (New York, California, Colorado, Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia, and Illinois) and a number of new municipalities, the PRRAC now estimates that over 57% of voucher holders are now covered.
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Maryland Commission Commemorates 60th Anniversary of Civil Rights Act
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Monday, July 1, 2024
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson to Keynote at MD Commission's August 24th Civil Rights Celebration
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