Arab Press

بالشعب و للشعب
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Banks and landlords want to overturn federal rules on housing algorithms

Banks and landlords want to overturn federal rules on housing algorithms

Landlords and lenders are pushing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to make it easier for businesses to discriminate against possible tenants using automated tools.
Under a new proposal that just finished its public comment period, HUD suggested raising the bar for some legal challenges, making discrimination cases less likely to succeed. Fair housing advocates have cried foul, arguing that the change will open the door for companies to discriminate with algorithms and get away with it.

Like most modern industries, the housing market relies on automation. In deciding whether to rent or sell someone a home, businesses run background checks, calculate insurance costs, examine credit, and generally take account of an applicant’s history. The tools that are used are largely hidden from public view, but they can have a devastating cost: a faulty or biased algorithm won’t just harm a single person, but can shut people out of housing in entire neighborhoods.

To help ensure communities are all treated equally by those tools, the Department of Housing and Urban Development finalized a rule in 2013 known as the disparate impact standard. Under the rule, if a protected group of people is harmed by a policy - even if that policy isn’t directly targeted at that group - then the company or government agency that implemented the policy can be held liable. If a zoning algorithm disproportionately harms people of color, for example, the city might face a lawsuit under the rule.

The standard has proven to be a crucial aid for advocates dealing with algorithmic discrimination. In one recent case out of Connecticut, a fair housing group has used the policy to sue over an automated background check system. Under the new rule, attorneys would have to go jump through new legal hoops to make a disparate impact case. The proposed change has generated tens of thousands of comments, and a review of them shows a clear divide, as fair housing and civil rights advocates square off against private industry.

Housing, mortgage, and insurance companies have said the old rules are too burdensome. A mortgage subsidiary of DR Horton, which bills itself as the largest home-builder in America, said in a comment to HUD that the new plan could “reduce frivolous and arbitrary claims.” Another mortgage company told HUD that the revised rule would provide “clarity and uniformity for those who seek to comply with their legal responsibilities.” One insurance company argued to the agency that the changes would “more appropriately position insurers to defend against disparate impact challenges.”

But many local and national advocates have said that the changes would completely upend their work on behalf of vulnerable people. National groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union have pushed back on the HUD plan. In a comment to the agency, the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology called the proposal an “unprecedented departure from decades of HUD and federal court precedent” and said that the agency’s reasons for the proposal “have no basis in law or in data or computer science.”

The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, a nonprofit group in Louisiana, has used the disparate impact standard to challenge an algorithm that unfairly distributed less money for black families to rebuild their homes after Hurricane Katrina. In a comment to HUD, the organization said the agency was proposing a “safe harbor” for housing companies that use algorithms to determine policy, and in the process, setting up the housing market to be “rife with discrimination.”

Cashauna Hill, executive director of the center, told The Verge that HUD’s changes would make similar cases “all but impossible” to pursue in the future.

“People have not only gotten smarter about how to discriminate,” she says, “but we also know that housing providers are outsourcing a lot of the work to data companies, and algorithms are doing a lot of the work.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

Arab Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Trump Backs Putin’s Land-for-Peace Proposal Amid Kyiv’s Rejection
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
United States Sells Luxury Yacht Amadea, Valued at Approximately $325 Million, in First Sale of a Seized Russian Yacht Since the Invasion of Ukraine
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
×