Robert Maddox Quoted in National Mortgage News on Criticism of New Fair Housing Rule

Bradley attorney Robert Maddox was quoted in National Mortgage News on the recent criticism the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has received on its interim final rule revising the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) policy.

Among the first acts HUD Secretary Scott Turner undertook was to terminate the Obama administration version of the rule, which the Biden presidency restored, cancelling an initiative from the first Trump term. Even under Biden, regulators were planning to revise AFFH but never finalized it.

When Turner terminated the rule in February, Maddox noted that the concept itself was a key part of the Fair Housing Act and a simple stroke of the pen could not undo it.

With this new rule, “there no longer is an affirmative duty to look at, you know, the traditions of what racial segregation did in housing,” Maddox explained in a follow-up interview.

Referring to his earlier comment, Maddox said this proposal is simply “Thou shalt not discriminate.” “Not, thou shalt not discriminate and affirmatively undo the historical path and break with segregation in housing,” he added.

For compliance purposes, all a property developer has to state is that no discrimination exists and that the property needs to be accessible. The rule in the Obama and Biden administrations had an affirmative obligation requiring subsequent analysis and evidence, Maddox explained.

“Thirty years of expansive back and forth rulemaking over vague statutory directives is the epitome of regulatory overreach,” the latest interim rule justification, as published in the Federal Register, stated. “HUD’s 2020 [Preserving Community and Neighborhood Choice] final rule, while taking into account a number of considerations, as detailed in the notice thereof and incorporated herein, fairly targeted and reined in this overreach.”

Maddox asked, with the deregulatory bent of the Trump administration, its budget cuts, and reductions in force in the federal government, who would be around to enforce the rule anyhow?

The full article, “HUD faces backlash over new fair housing rule,” was published by National Mortgage News on May 7, 2025.