Fair housing organizations filed a lawsuit Wednesday over a federal rule change that they say would reverse decades of lending protections and open the door to discrimination against Black people, Latinos and other minorities. The federal lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., takes aim at a change made earlier this year by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which bars lenders from discriminating against credit applicants. Among the changes being challenged is that lenders will no longer have to consider “disparate impact” — policies that appear neutral but tend to cause disproportionate harm to certain groups. Plaintiffs also argue the rule would make it easier for lenders to market loans to predominantly white neighborhoods, forcing minority communities to rely on risky, high-cost lenders that offer predatory loans with exorbitant interest rates.
“This is the deliberate dismantling of 50 years of legal jurisprudence, regulatory guidance, and bipartisan consensus that lending discrimination has no place in America,” Lisa Rice, the CEO and president of the National Fair Housing Alliance, one of the plaintiffs that filed the lawsuit, said in a statement.
