North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein joined 21 other state attorneys general in criticizing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s proposed changes to the disparate impact standard.
The concept of disparate impact reinforces the Fair Housing Act and offers tenants and borrowers protection from housing policies that seem neutral but, in practice, put certain groups at risk. The legal argument was employed in lower courts for decades to challenge coded racial segregation policies. In 2015, the Supreme Court clarified the Fair Housing Act to include disparate impact protections, asserting that housing discrimination can occur without direct intention. Among the proposed rule changes, the U.S. HUD seeks to shift the burden of proof when it comes to discrimination from the landlord or lender to the renter or home-buyer.
Host Frank Stasio speaks with Stacy Seicshnaydre, professor of law and associate dean of Experiential Learning and Public Interest Programs at Tulane University about who would be affected by the policy change.