Tag: Fair Housing Act
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Eyes on the Ball: Fair Housing Strengthens a Society’s Commitment to Equal Rights
Housing discrimination leads to so many regrettable circumstances. It divides and segregates us. It sits at the core of the affordability struggle. It leads to unrest, anger, and desperation in our cities and towns. Unfairness in the housing setup constantly affects the quality of people’s medical care, safety…even access to healthy food. It impacts some…
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The Push for Fair Housing: Can Equity Triumph Over Hardball Politics?
The National Fair Housing Alliance keeps the public updated on housing access. Its recent reporting indicates that U.S. housing discrimination has been rising over the past decade. In our digital era, we cannot talk about discrimination without implicating automated systems. So we need to understand fairness in the context of our computer age. Technology can…
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Beyond Bizarre: Milwaukee’s Racial Deed Restrictions
Milwaukee is dealing with a race matter — affecting tens of thousands of the city’s property deeds. Two researchers, Profs. Anne Bonds and Derek Handley, shared their progress with more than 200 interested attendees this month at Milwaukee Central Library. The findings were beyond bizarre.
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Texas Law Restricting Foreign Buyers Chills Chinese Investment
Tonya Li works as a real estate agent in Austin. A Sotheby’s agent, Li has represented Chinese clients for the better part of a decade. Li reports losing 50% of her work after Texas enacted a new state law, banning certain foreigners from buying real estate. Texas Senate Bill 17 came into effect in September.…
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When Some Buyers Are More Equal Than Others: Will the U.S. Government “Reboot Redlining”?
Not long ago, New Jersey-based OceanFirst Bank agreed to pay more than $15 million in a settlement with the federal government. This was to resolve the government’s allegations that, for several years, beginning in 2018, the bank violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Fair Housing Act. The problem involved an alleged pattern of ignoring…
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Dane County, Wisconsin Event Helps Deed Holders Delete Racial Covenants
In June, a two-and-a-half-hour event took place at the Alliant Energy Center Exhibition Hall in Madison. The goal? To deal with harmful, racially motivated deed restrictions. Local leaders showed up — and led. Title professionals came to help deed holders fill out and record the document called “Discharge and Release of Discriminatory Restriction Affecting Real…
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Feds Sue Rocket for Race-Based Appraisal Bias. Rocket Fights Back.
Retail lending powerhouse Rocket Mortgage is now suing the U.S. Justice Department. Rocket says the government wrongly dragged the company into a discrimination lawsuit. It was a Colorado deed holder who first called out a lowball appraisal. The Justice Department claimed that Rocket derailed the refinance application after that calling-out. But Rocket leadership denies having…
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Facing Up to Discriminatory Deed Language: What Pennsylvania Did
With everything that’s happening in the world, maybe more needs to be said about what the Pennsylvania Senate did in December. Every senator agreed to pass state Rep. Justin Fleming’s H.B. 1289, enabling homeowners to publicly condemn offensive language in deed covenants. The new law 1289 makes it cheap or free, and very simple to…
