Senator
Maxine Water’s has introduced CRL, H.R. 6220., this bill is a response to the
actions of Secretary of HUD Ben Carson.
Carson has proposed cutting the HUD budget by 1 billion dollars, increased
rental fees, has removed fair housing language from their mission statement,
and has suspended the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule. Senator Water’s proposed bill is intended to restore HUD’s
fair housing agenda. This restoration entails: the adding the fair housing
language to the mission statement, restoring “HUD’s AFFH rule as soon as practically possible following
the bill’s enactment; HUD’s Local Government Assessment Tool that helps state
and local jurisdictions to comply with the AFFH rule within 30 days of
enactment; and a requirement that the HUD Secretary report to Congress a
Secretary-directed review of fair housing complaints that involve an online
platform, the addition of an analysis of
trends and risks related to discrimination, steps to address such
discrimination, and the status of complaints filed. The legislation also includes a requirement that
owners and operators of HUD-funded homeless shelters to post a notice informing
clients of their rights under an agency rule regarding gender identity. This
rule affects any grantee receiving funding through the agency’s Community
Planning and Development program.”
This past Thursday, Businessweek covered a massive settlement in a federal lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in SunTrust’s lending practices. The suit, filed by the US DOJ, was filed in the U.S. District Court in Richmond, VA, alleging more than 20,000 African-American and Hispanic borrowers were charged more than similarly-situated and qualified non-Hispanic white borrowers, between 2005 and 2009. The suit alleged that minority borrowers in 75 geographic markets from Virginia Beach, VA to San Francisco, CA, paid more in loan fees, or were charged higher interest rates based solely on race or national origin. A consent order filed with the complaint says SunTrust denies any wrongdoing, but agreed to the settlement. "SunTrust strongly believes in the principles of fair lending," company spokesman Mike McCoy in Atlanta said. "We are pleased to have reached a settlement and put this matter behind us." Settlements like this come as a surprise, considering the...
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