The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) recently filed two complaints against appraisers with the Department of Housing and Urban Development asserting different treatment based on race in violation of the Fair Housing Act. One complaint asserts different service levels based on race, and the other asserts different home valuations based on race, with White individuals receiving better service or home valuations than Black individuals.… Continue Reading

In Mortgagee Letter 2022-09 dated July 7, 2022, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sets forth new flexibility in underwriting guidelines for calculating effective income for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured loan applicants who incurred a reduction or loss in income as a result of a COVID-19 Economic Event. … Continue Reading

At an industry fair lending conference last week, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), the CFPB, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) outlined fair lending priorities for their agencies.  These represent the first remarks by these regulators following the DOJ’s announcement of its major new “Combatting Redlining Initiative” on October 22, 2021, and it was the topic of each of their presentations. … Continue Reading

Last week, the White House announced that President Biden intends to nominate Dave Uejio, who currently serves as CFPB Acting Director, to serve as Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In January 2021, President Biden named Rohit Chopra to serve as CFPB Director. … Continue Reading

On May 21, 2021, the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) announced that it had reached a settlement with California-based Cascade Village Apartments II, LP (“Cascade Village”), its management company, FPI Management, Inc. (“FPI”), and FPI’s portfolio manager to resolve allegations that the companies violated the Fair Housing Act and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on the basis of limited English proficiency (“LEP”) and national origin. … Continue Reading

Last week, HUD’s Acting Assistant Director for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity issued a memorandum directing HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity to take a series of actions “to administer and fully enforce the Fair Housing Act to prohibit discrimination because of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

The memorandum is intended to implement President Biden’s Executive Order 13988 on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation (Executive Order). … Continue Reading

In a memorandum issued on January 26, 2021, President Biden has ordered the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) to “as soon as practicable, take all steps necessary to examine the effects of” the final rule issued by HUD in September 2020 (“2020 Rule”) revising its 2013 Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) disparate impact standards (“2013 Rule”).… Continue Reading

In response to directions from the Biden Administration, the following actions have been taken:

Federal student loans.  The Acting Secretary of Education has extended the following relief on ED-held federal student loans until September 30, 2021:

  • Suspension of loan payments
  • Suspension of collection efforts
  • Setting of interest rate at 0%

Foreclosures and Evictions. Continue Reading

The Biden transition has announced the members of its agency review teams.

The team leaders include the following individuals:

CFPB.  The team will be led by Leandra English, who is currently with the New York Department of Financial Services.  As our blog readers may recall, Ms. English was appointed CFPB Deputy Director by former CFPB Director Cordray upon his departure from the Bureau. … Continue Reading

On October 25, a Massachusetts federal district court entered a preliminary injunction staying and postponing the effective date of the final rule issued by HUD last month (“2020 Rule”) revising its 2013 Fair Housing Act disparate impact standards (“2013 Rule”).  The order also enjoins HUD from enforcing the 2020 Rule and keeps the 2013 Rule in place until further order of the court. … Continue Reading