From NAA | HUD Announces Key Fair Housing Updates

The Big Picture

To align with President Trump’s housing and deregulation priorities across the federal government, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced three significant changes to how the agency will enforce fair housing laws and allocate its resources for fair housing investigations and complaints moving forward. Importantly, these developments impact how housing providers defend against disparate impact claims, evaluate renters’ criminal history in the screening process and assess renter requests for service and emotional support animals. 

On September 16, 2025, HUD circulated a memorandum that was directed to the agency’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) headquarters staff, Office of Enforcement staff, regional directors and field supervisors and detailed immediate changes to the agency’s enforcement priorities. The memo instructs the agency’s staff to focus all its resources on cases with the strongest evidence of intentional discrimination and rescinds all guidance that is not in alignment with this directive. Furthermore, it states that a “priority memorandum” for all fair housing cases will be reviewed by the Trump-appointed head of FHEO or his designee to determine whether further action is warranted.

This memo appears to implement the President’s Executive Order 14281, Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy, which seeks to eliminate the use of disparate impact liability in all contexts across the federal government. This is a significant departure from prior administrations’ position on disparate impact claims under the Fair Housing Act. At issue for housing providers is that facially neutral and common business practices, such as occupancy standards, criminal background screening and policies related to Section 8 rental subsidies, could trigger disparate impact claims despite no intent to discriminate against a federally protected class. 

This announcement builds on the success of the National Apartment Association’s (NAA) regulatory advocacy with the Trump Administration. The rental housing industry strongly supports fair housing laws, but has long raised concerns that an overly expansive view of disparate impact theory could create liability for basic housing development and operational practices. 

Earlier this year, NAA urged HUD to rescind prior administrations’ rulemakings and reinstate the 2020 Disparate Impact Rule, which aligned the rule with Supreme Court and other legal action as well as included important safeguards for housing providers against litigation stemming from legitimate, nondiscriminatory policies. HUD reported to the Executive Office of the President that HUD's Implementation of the Fair Housing Act's Disparate Impact Standard (FR-6540) is a priority for the agency’s Spring 2025 Regulatory Plan. 

On November 26, 2025, HUD announced that Secretary Scott Turner published a letter on screening criminal responsibilities. In this communication to public housing authorities (PHAs) and private owners of project-based rental assistance (PBRA), the Secretary affirms HUD, PHAs and PBRA owners’ obligation to ensure that “we are providing decent, safe, and affordable housing to the millions of American families we serve.” The Secretary urges PHAs and PBRA owners to take all steps necessary to meet that obligation, including: 

• Screening for criminal history prior to admission into HUD-assisted housing; 
• Monitoring of assisted households to remove individuals who pose a threat to the safety and peaceful enjoyment of their units; and 
• Deploying resources to ensure the ongoing safety of such properties through physical security features and/or contracted safety services. 

Secretary Turner argues that past HUD guidance created confusion about this obligation and, therefore, he has rescinded the agency's guidance that did not align with these priorities. The letter closes by reminding PHAs and owners of their HUD-mandated and optional screening requirements, which are available to them to meet their obligation to provide safe housing.

As part of its advocacy, NAA had urged HUD to rescind and revise all guidance and memoranda that rely on previous administrations’ disparate impact rulemaking, including HUD’s criminal screening guidance, which have now been rescinded as part of the above agency actions: 

• Notice 2015-19, “Guidance for Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) and Owners of Federally-Assisted Housing on Excluding the Use of Arrest Records in Housing Decisions”; 
• 2016 memo from HUD’s Office of General Counsel on “Guidance on Application of Fair Housing Act Standards to the Use of Criminal Records by Providers of Housing and Real Estate-Related Transactions”; and 
• 2022 memo from HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity on “Implementation of the Office of General Counsel’s Guidance on Application of Fair Housing Act Standards to the Use of Criminal Records by Providers of Housing and Real Estate-Related Transactions” on background screening. 

NAA continues its conversations with HUD about the importance of safeguards to guide fair housing compliance in resident screening, such as: 

• Ensuring that housing providers are permitted to develop clear rules about types of convictions that can be used to make housing decisions; 
• Eliminating HUD’s individualized assessment requirement; and 
• Shortening the amount of time that housing providers must give applicants to dispute inaccurate information to streamline screening processes. 

On September 17, 2025, HUD issued a memorandum to its FHEO and Office of Enforcement Staff announcing the elimination of prior agency guidance, which this Administration determines should no longer be in effect in light of President Trump’s executive orders prioritizing deregulation across the federal government. Pending review, this memo withdraws HUD “FHEO Notice 2013-01: Service Animals and Assistance Animals for People with Disabilities in Housing and HUD-funded Programs” and “FHEO 2020-01: Assessing a Person’s Request to Have an Animal as a Reasonable Accommodation Under the Fair Housing Act.” The memo states that “such withdrawal is not necessarily final.” NAA is analyzing the memo to better understand what this means for the industry.  

As part of our advocacy with the Trump Administration, NAA urged HUD to reexamine its guidance on service and emotional support animal (also known as assistance animal) requests in housing and submitted recommendations on behalf of the industry. NAA asked the agency to reaffirm housing providers’ right to question the authenticity or reliability of required documentation, enforce limitations on the types of healthcare professionals who can verify disability-related need and reexamine the applicability of routine pet policies and charges to assistance animals. In addition, NAA suggested reconsideration of whether the process to evaluate a request for a service animal under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) should also be the basis for considering service animal requests under the FHA. 

NAA will continue to ensure that the industry has a seat at the table in policy discussions about assistance animal requests. While NAA strongly supports disabled renters’ rights to reside with their assistance animals, fraudulent reasonable accommodation requests for assistance animals - specifically emotional support animals – create significant concern for apartment owners and operators.

What Does This Mean for My Business? 

These are promising developments for the rental housing industry as they point to a clearer direction for housing providers to understand their federal compliance responsibilities. NAA members should remember that these announcements do not impact private rights of action or state and local fair housing enforcement. NAA stands ready to assist its members with operational resources and is working to update its training and education to reflect any new fair housing obligations.

NAA appreciates HUD’s swift action on these issues, which align with our advocacy objectives of bolstering the nation’s housing supply, lowering costs and protecting the long-term viability of rental housing. NAA will continue to work with the Trump Administration on responsible and sustainable housing policies, including equal housing opportunity for all.