Law Commons^™

The Scarlet Letter "E": How Tenancy Screening Policies Exacerbate Housing Inequity For Evicted Black Women, Yvette N.A. Pappoe

Journal Articles

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an unprecedented health and economic crisis in the United States. In addition to more than nine hundred thousand deaths in the United States and counting, another kind of crisis emerged from the pandemic: an eviction crisis. In August 2020, an estimated thirty to forty million people in America were at risk of facing eviction by the end of the year. Black women renters faced a higher risk of losing their homes than other groups. At the onset of the pandemic, the federal government implemented eviction moratoria to prevent the evictions of tenants who were unable …

Fair Housing’S Third Act: American Tragedy Or Triumph?, Heather R. Abraham

Journal Articles

Fifty-two years ago, Congress enacted a one-of-a-kind civil rights directive. It requires every federal agency—and state and local grantees by extension—to take affirmative steps to undo segregation. In 2020, this overlooked Fair Housing Act provision—the “affirmatively furthering fair housing” or “AFFH” mandate—has heightened relevance. Perhaps most visible is Donald Trump’s racially charged “protect the suburbs” campaign rhetoric. In an apparent appeal to suburban constituents, his administration repealed a race-conscious fair housing rule, replacing it with a no-questions-asked regulation that elevates “local control” above civil rights.

The maneuver is especially stark as protesters fill the streets, marching in opposition to systemic …

Law School News: Mike Andrews '97 Nominated To U.S. Court Of Federal Claims 12-15-2020, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

In West Philadelphia Born And Raised Or Moving To Bel-Air? Racial Steering As A Consequence Of Using Race Data On Real Estate Websites, Nadiyah J. Humber

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Fair Housing Enforcement In The Age Of Digital Advertising: A Closer Look At Facebook’S Marketing Algorithms, Nadiyah J. Humber, James Matthews

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Comments To Hud Re: Fr-6111-P-02, Hud’S Implementation Of The Fair Housing Act’S Disparate Impact Standard, Lauren E. Willis, Olatunde C.A. Johnson, Mark Niles, Rigel Christine Oliveri

Faculty Scholarship

In key places, HUD’s 2019 proposed "Implementation of the Fair Housing Act’s Disparate Impact Standard" is at odds with express provisions of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and goes so far as to invent new defenses to liability for housing discrimination and to place the burden of pleading and proving the nonexistence of some of these defenses on plaintiffs. In addition, the proposed rule addresses itself to matters beyond the FHA; specifically, to evidentiary and procedural issues as they may arise in cases brought under the FHA in federal or state courts. HUD provides no reasoned justification for these changes …

Side By Side: Revitalizing Urban Cores And Ensuring Residential Diversity, Andrea Boyack

Faculty Publications

Fifty years ago, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed a hope that someday people of all races would “live side by side in decent, safe, and sanitary housing.” Residential patterns in America today, however, remain highly segregated by race and income. The Fair Housing Act outlawed overt housing discrimination and unjustified discriminatory impacts, but zoning laws and housing finance structures have continued to impede housing integration, leaving communities nearly as racially homogenous as they were in the mid 20th century. These separate neighborhoods are far from equal. The majority of people who reside in financially distressed city-center neighborhoods are …

Proving Disparate Impact In Fair Housing Cases After Inclusive Communities, Robert G. Schwemm, Calvin Bradford

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Disparate-impact claims under the federal Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) are now a well-established part of housing discrimination law, having been recognized for decades by the lower courts and recently endorsed by the Supreme Court in Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. The Court in Inclusive Communities saw the impact theory as a way of bolstering the FHA’s “role in moving the Nation toward a more integrated society,” but it also set forth certain “cautionary standards” to guard against “abusive” impact claims. Under these standards, which are similar to those adopted in a 2013 HUD …

Towards A New Eviction Jurisprudence, Gerald S. Dickinson

Articles

The One-Strike Rule, contemplated in a model lease provision, has been the primary mechanism employed by Congress to eliminate the “scourge of drugs” in public housing projects. The rule gives public housing authorities (PHA) discretion to evict tenants engaged in drug-related criminal activity and hold the tenant equally liable if a guest or family member engaged in the criminal activity, even if the tenant had no knowledge of the offense. The Supreme Court most notably upheld this policy in 2002 in United States Department of Housing and Urban Development v. Rucker.

Today the wisdom of that rule, which has served …

Neighbor-On-Neighbor Harassment: Does The Fair Housing Act Make A Federal Case Out Of It?, Robert G. Schwemm

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Does the federal Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) ban harassing statements to a minority family who has just moved into a predominantly white neighborhood? The FHA does contain an antiharassment provision (42 U.S.C. § 3617), and this certainly applies to firebombings and other types of physical assault designed to drive the family out of the area. But does § 3617 also outlaw purely verbal attacks? And if so, how egregious must the remarks be before a federal case should be made out of them? For example, would substituting "Niggers" for "people like you" in the above quote make a difference?

Today, …

Cox, Halprin, And Discriminatory Municipal Services Under The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article deals with Cox v. City of Dallas, Halprin v. Prairie Single Family Homes of Dearborn Park Ass’n, and the issue of whether the Federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) should be interpreted to outlaw discrimination in the provision of services by local governments. Part I describes the Cox litigation and its connection with Halprin. Part II surveys the pre-Cox cases that have dealt with discriminatory municipal services. Part III analyzes the FHA's relevant provisions and their legislative history and concludes that Cox and Halprin were wrong to deny FHA protection to current residents. Part IV …

Why Do Landlords Still Discriminate (And What Can Be Done About It)?, Robert G. Schwemm

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Let's say you have a serious, though not life-threatening, medical condition, such as a non-malignant growth in your back that causes considerable pain and impairs your ability to walk. At first, your doctor tells you there is no cure, but then one day, a new drug specifically designed to eliminate this kind of problem is approved. You take this drug, but notice no change. With your doctor's encouragement, you continue to take the drug, hoping that its cumulative effect will achieve the desired result. Twenty years go by with no relief. Then, your doctor tells you that a much stronger …

Barriers To Accessible Housing: Enforcement Issues In “Design And Construction” Cases Under The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 (“FHAA”), Congress added “handicap” to the bases of discrimination outlawed by the federal Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) and also enacted three special provisions to further insure equal housing opportunity for persons with disabilities. One of these special provisions—§ 3604(f)(3)(C) —mandates that all new multi-family housing be designed and constructed with seven specified accessibility features.

Despite the accessibility requirements of § 3604(f)(3)(C)—and similar requirements in scores of state and local fair housing laws—a great deal of the multi-family housing built since §3604(f)(3)(C) became effective has failed to include the features mandated by this …

For The Rest Of Their Lives: Seniors And The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm, Michael Allen

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

America's population is growing older. According to the 2000 census, more than 35 million people in the United States (12% of the total population) are over 65 years old. These figures are expected to grow dramatically in the early decades of the twenty-first century as the "Baby Boom" generation reaches retirement age and as improvements in health care make it possible for more people to live to an advanced age.

Providing housing for this segment of the American population is already a massive industry and one that will certainly grow as the number of, older persons increases. One of the …

Promoting The Promise Manufactured Homes Provide For Affordable Housing, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

This Article raises issues for HUD and other policy makers to consider with respect to MHIA programs and broader mobile home policies. It also seeks to spark public awareness about the potential that mobile homes provide for affordable housing. The time is ripe for policy makers on federal and state levels to craft safety and financing regulations that take into account the unique character and complexities of mobile home transactions and mobile home ownership. Furthermore, the MHIA should ignite mobile home manufacturers, retailers, lenders, and consumer advocates to join forces to help alleviate burdens of mobile home ownership and provide …

Discriminatory Housing Statements And §3604(C): A New Look At The Fair Housing Act’S Most Intriguing Provision, Robert G. Schwemm

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Today, more than three decades after the 1968 Fair Housing Act ("FHA") banned such behavior, blatant discrimination—often accompanied by racist slurs and other explicitly discriminatory statements—continues to plague America's housing markets. The FHA not only outlawed discrimination in most housing transactions on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin, but also contained a specific prohibition, § 3604(c), banning all discriminatory housing statements. Unlike the FHA's more traditional prohibitions against discriminatory refusals to deal and discriminatory terms and conditions, § 3604(c)'s ban on discriminatory statements has not been the subject of much litigation or debate.

Part I of the …

Government Lawyers And Their Private “Clients” Under The Fair Housing Act, Eugene R. Gaetke, Robert G. Schwemm

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In strengthening enforcement of the federal Fair Housing Act, Congress in the 1988 Fair Housing Amendments Act ("FHAA") authorized government lawyers from the Justice Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and state and local civil rights agencies to prosecute cases "on behalf of” persons aggrieved by housing discrimination. This new enforcement scheme has led to a heightened level of administrative complaints and litigated cases in which government lawyers are put in the potentially difficult position of having to represent both their agency and private complainants.

The "triangular" relationships created by the FHAA between government lawyers and their public …

Affordable Housing: Update On Federal And State Activities, Patricia E. Salkin

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Fair Housing Litigation, Robert G. Schwemm

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article is a revised version of the keynote address I gave at a conference entitled "Where is Fair Housing Headed in This Decade?" sponsored by The John Marshall Law School in the Fall of 1992. As its title implies, the conference focused on the future of fair housing, and my address dealt with certain developments that I felt were not only observable in the early years of the 1990s, but were also likely to be important in the remaining years of this decade.

Many of these developments—such as the growing role of the federal government in fair housing enforcement …

Judicial Approaches To Urban Housing Problems - A Study Of The Cleveland Housing Court, W. Dennis Keating

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This article reviews the role and impact of urban housing courts. It analyzes the findings of a detailed empirical study of Cleveland's housing court, which began operations in April 1980, and discusses the relationship of this court to code enforcement and resolution of landlord-tenant disputes. The court's role in innovative remedies, especially the appointment of receivers for abandoned housing, is also discussed and reforms are suggested. The article concludes with an overall assessment of the potential of housing courts to deal effectively with urban housing issues.

Recent Developments In Housing And Community Development, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

This has been an active year in the area of housing and community development, with many of the recent changes oriented toward coping with a fluctuating housing finance market or assessing the effect of increased governmental activity in many sectors upon private rights and causes of action. The first section by the members of the Committee on Housing and Community Development focuses upon recent changes in federal regulations dealing with the private sector, more specifically the fundamental change in enforcement of "due-on-sale" clauses. The second section in this article examines new policies relating to transfers of the ownership of housing …