On June 29, CDT filed comments calling on the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to withdraw proposed amendments to regulations on equal access to housing under HUD’s Community Planning and Development programs. HUD’s current regulations require funding recipients under these programs to have nondiscriminatory policies and procedures ensuring that a person seeking housing is not subjected to intrusive demands for sensitive information to prove their gender identity, and that their eligibility and access is determined without regard to their actual or perceived gender identity.
HUD’s proposed amendments would eliminate these safeguards, instead allowing funding recipients — including public housing agencies, emergency shelters, and other facility and service providers — to violate people’s privacy and discriminate based on sex. Under the current proposal, HUD would defer to funding recipients to demand any “reasonable assurances or evidence” they deem appropriate to establish the sex of a housing applicant or occupant. Funding recipients could implement unreliable and privacy-invasive methods to obtain substantial sensitive information from people in urgent need of safe housing, and funding recipients could use this information to turn people away on a discriminatory basis.
These proposed changes are contrary to the Fair Housing Act’s objectives. HUD should instead focus on fulfilling its responsibility to improve access to the agency’s housing programs.