Thanks to the industry’s strong advocacy against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) proposed criminal screening requirements for HUD-assisted housing, the Department has announced its withdrawal of the Reducing Barriers to HUD-assisted Housing rule on January 16, 2025.
The proposed rule would have:
- Established a 3-year lookback period for criminal activity that covered housing providers could use as the basis for a housing denial;
- Further limited allowable mandatory denials under federal law to a 12-month lookback period as part of the definition of “currently engaged in [criminal activities]”.
- Severely narrowed the scope of criminal activity that covered housing providers could evaluate in the screening process; and
- Elevated the standard of proof for evictions based on criminal activity.
In its initial notice of proposed rulemaking, HUD made some acknowledgement of the challenges that covered housing providers would face complying with these requirements, noting that “[m]ost of the changes in the proposed rule would not apply to owners who participate in the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program or Project Based Voucher (PBV) program…in order to avoid discouraging owner participation.”
NAA, alongside our national coalition partners, led the industry’s federal advocacy opposing this significant overreach in ongoing conversations with regulators, our comment letters, and with the help of our valued affiliate partners and members who submitted more than 2,000 individual responses to HUD’s request for public comments.
On January 16, HUD also announced withdrawal of another key fair housing priority of the previous administration, its proposed update to the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule. The industry would have felt indirect impacts if the proposed rule was imposed. It set forth a framework to streamline fair housing evaluations for state and local governments and required them to develop a plan to address perceived fair housing issues with significant community engagement as prerequisite to successful plan development.
While the withdrawal of these proposed rules is welcome news, NAA remains vigilant and will continue its federal regulatory advocacy with the Trump Administration to urge a balanced approach to policymaking.
To learn more, please contact NAA’s Public Policy Team.