The Credit Union National Association (CUNA) voiced its support for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) efforts to ensure that there is a codified discriminatory effects standard.
Specifically, HUD proposed to reinstate a 2013 final rule adopting a long-standing three-step approach for determining violations of the Fair Housing Act’s (FHA) Discriminatory Effects Standard.
“Credit unions support the goals of the FHA to prohibit discrimination in our housing finance sector and to ensure fair housing access to all Americans in our country,” CUNA officials wrote in an Aug. 24 letter to HUD. “CUNA further supports the codification of a discriminatory effects standard. Credit unions have long been aware that policies that create a disparate impact on a protected group of members or potential members may be in violation of the FHA.”
CUNA added that codifying a single, authoritative standard for disparate impact claims simplifies this process and creates a consistent level of protections across the country.
However, CUNA officials urge HUD to offer a safe harbor for policies directly required by statutory obligations, such as credit union field of membership limitations.
“CUNA also urges HUD to include in its burden shifting framework an explicit safe harbor for policies which are the direct result of ‘facially neutral statutory obligations’ such as credit union field of membership requirements. CUNA would similarly urge HUD to explicitly mention credit union field of membership limitations as an illustrative example of a statutory limitation satisfying the safe harbor,” the letter states.