# Housing Fairness Act of 2021: Plain Language Summary

This bill creates a federal program to catch and stop housing discrimination. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will hire fair housing organizations to conduct undercover testing across the country—basically sending people to apply for apartments, homes, or mortgages to see if they're treated differently based on their race, religion, gender, family status, disability, or national origin. If a landlord or lender treats someone worse because of who they are, the testing will document it. The results get reported to Congress every two years so lawmakers can see how widespread discrimination is in the housing market and what needs to be done about it.

When discrimination is uncovered through this testing, the results can be used as evidence in legal cases against landlords, lenders, or other housing providers. This gives enforcement agencies and fair housing organizations a powerful tool to investigate and prosecute housing discrimination cases. The bill also increases funding for the Fair Housing Initiatives Program, which supports nonprofit organizations that fight housing discrimination and educate people about their rights. The government will spend $15 million annually on the testing program and $42.5 million annually on fair housing enforcement and education from 2021 through 2025.

Additionally, the bill funds research grants for nonprofits studying why housing discrimination happens and how to fix it. Organizations can receive matching grants to study discrimination's effects on education, poverty, and economic development, or to test new solutions that prevent discrimination. The bill also emphasizes that HUD should run a strong national education campaign so renters and homebuyers know their legal rights and where to report unfair treatment.

Housing Fairness Act of 2021

Green, Al

Veterans, Women, Families with Children, Race, and Persons with Disabilities Housing Fairness Act of 2021 or the Housing Fairness Act of 2021 This bill expands efforts to detect and address housing discrimination. Specifically, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) must conduct a nationwide testing program to (1) detect and document differences in the treatment of prospective renters, homebuyers, or mortgage borrowers; (2) measure patterns of adverse treatment because of the race, color, religion, sex, familial status, disability status, or national origin of a renter, homebuyer, or borrower; and (3) measure the prevalence of such discriminatory practices across housing and mortgage lending markets. The bill also reauthorizes through FY2025 the Fair Housing Initiatives Program, which supports organizations that provide direct assistance to individuals who have been victims of housing discrimination. Additionally, HUD shall implement a grant program to assist public and private nonprofit organizations in (1) conducting comprehensive studies of the causes and effects of housing discrimination and segregation on education, poverty, and economic development or on veterans and military personnel; and (2) implementing pilot projects that test solutions to help prevent or alleviate housing discrimination and segregation.