Fair Housing under Attack
By Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson
Just seven days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Fair Housing Act of 1968 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson to prevent racial discrimination towards people of color that historically had been denied housing opportunities by bigoted landlords, lenders, and housing developers, among others.
In fact, prior to the time that the Fair Housing Act became law segregated neighborhoods were created by many local and state governments all across America. The federal government was complicit in many instances as well. The new legislation was an attempt to make our country an accommodating place for all people.
The Housing Act is one of the most important pieces of Civil Rights legislation implemented in the history of our nation, giving the victims of housing discrimination access to better employment opportunities, equality schools for their children and closeness to libraries, parks and recreational facilities.
It has not been without its foes, including officials in government who oppose the idea of all of America’s citizens living where they choose. Methods to reintroduce discrimination in housing have become more and more sophisticated.
The latest such culprit begins with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development which recently proposed a rule which would make it extremely difficult for plaintiffs to bring and win housing discrimination law suits. Under current rules, those accused of housing discrimination have a duty to illustrate why they are not guilty. Under the proposed rule the burden of showing discrimination is placed on those making the complaint.
The new rule provides arguments for those accused of discriminating, stating that when they use algorithms or other forms of artificial intelligence they may use as a defense that the practices are common in the industry, or that the science they relied upon were created by people other than themselves or their companies.
This is incredulous. Is there no one in the Department of Housing or in the administration that has the slightest notion that there are programmers of artificial intelligence who might be bigots who are opposed to the goals of the Fair Housing Act?
One recent study stated that African American households where the annual income was $167,000 stood less of a chance of qualifying for a prime loan than a white household where the annual income was $40,000. So much for algorithms and fairness in housing!
*Congresswoman Johnson represents the 30th Congressional District of Texas in the United States House of Representatives where she chairs the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
