Late Monday, August 12, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California largely DENIED Fannie Mae\u2019s Motion<\/a> to Dismiss a fair housing lawsuit concerning housing discrimination against communities of color. The lawsuit, brought by the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and 20 local fair housing organizations, charged Fannie Mae with failing to maintain foreclosed properties (also known as Real Estate Owned or \u201cREO\u201d properties) in Black and LatinX neighborhoods, even as Fannie Mae simultaneously was keeping foreclosed properties in predominately White communities well-maintained. The fair housing groups allege that Fannie Mae\u2019s poor and improper maintenance policies and practices in Black and LatinX communities contributed to blight and other challenges in these areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a March, 2018 decision, the federal court found that the fair\nhousing groups had standing to bring a lawsuit against Fannie Mae and upheld their\ndisparate impact claims against the mortgage giant. Disparate impact is a longstanding protection\nthat allows people to challenge unjustified policies that might seem neutral on\ntheir face but result in discriminatory outcomes. In doing so, the court found that the fair\nhousing groups properly brought the lawsuit alleging that Fannie Mae\u2019s REO maintenance\npractices unnecessarily discriminated against communities of color, regardless\nof what the company\u2019s intent might have been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Monday\u2019s ruling the court again upheld plaintiffs\u2019 allegations of intentional discrimination. But the court also pointed to the fair housing groups\u2019 assertions that even though they repeatedly warned Fannie Mae that its policies and practices were causing discriminatory outcomes, the company did not change its behavior. The court noted that \u201c\u2026there are sufficient allegations to establish a claim for disparate impact\u2026and the court finds that the Plaintiffs have set out sufficient allegations of intentional conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis decision proves that our courts matter when it comes to fighting illegal discrimination,\u201d said Lisa Rice, President & CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance. She continued, \u201cCommunities of color were the canaries in the coal mine when it came to redlining and predatory lending practices that contributed to the foreclosure and financial crises. These same communities that were targeted for unsustainable mortgages were the hardest hit. Fannie Mae\u2019s practices have contributed to the blighted conditions of Black and LatinX neighborhoods and made it harder for these communities, ten years later, to recover from the crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are quite pleased with the court\u2019s ruling which paves the way for the fair housing groups to continue with our lawsuit against Fannie Mae on both disparate impact and intentional discrimination or disparate treatment claims,\u201d said Morgan Williams, General Counsel of the National Fair Housing Alliance. \u201cFor centuries, lending institutions have behaved in ways that discriminate against communities of color. It\u2019s difficult to get that hard-wired bias out of our lending DNA. It\u2019s easier to default to practices that manifest discriminatory outcomes. Our goal with this lawsuit is to get the industry moving in another direction. We will never see change if we don\u2019t make change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The National Fair Housing Alliance and other local fair housing groups have similar lawsuits pending against Deutsche Bank<\/a> and Bank of America<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fair housing groups are represented by Relman, Dane and Colfax<\/a>, one of the nation\u2019s leading civil rights law firms. The groups are also represented by Morgan Williams, General Counsel of the National Fair Housing Alliance<\/a>, and Casey Epp, Supervising Attorney of Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Background<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n On December 5, 2016, the National Fair Housing Alliance along with 20\nlocal fair housing organizations throughout the United States filed a federal\nlawsuit against Fannie Mae in federal district court in San Francisco,\nCalifornia. The lawsuit alleged that\nFannie Mae failed to maintain its foreclosed properties (REO properties) in\nBlack and LatinX neighborhoods to the same level of quality and standards as it\ndid for foreclosed properties it owned in predominately White communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The plaintiff fair housing groups\nconducted a comprehensive multi-year investigation of over 2,300 properties\nowned by Fannie Mae in 38 metropolitan areas (see map below) and accumulated\nover 49,000 photographs documenting the mistreatment and poor maintenance\nconditions in communities of color as well as the superior treatment and proper\nmaintenance of REOs in predominately White communities. The investigation revealed that Fannie Mae\nfailed to perform routine maintenance, marketing and management activities such\nas mowing the lawn, trimming hedges, removing debris, maintaining gutters, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NFHA notified Fannie Mae many times of the company\u2019s failure to maintain and market its foreclosed homes in communities of color to the same standard to which it was maintaining and marketing foreclosed homes it owned in similar, predominantly White neighborhoods. In spite of numerous meetings between NFHA and Fannie Mae to address these disparities, Fannie Mae persisted in its willful neglect of REO properties it owned in Black and LatinX neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For Immediate ReleaseAugust 13, 2019 Contact: Morgan Williams | (202) 898-1661 | mwilliams@nationalfairhousing.org Late Monday, August 12, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California largely DENIED Fannie Mae\u2019s Motion to Dismiss a fair housing lawsuit concerning housing discrimination against communities of color. The lawsuit, brought by the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":433,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,34,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-media","category-nfha-news","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nationalfairhousing.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Fannie.png\")
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