Expanding the Fair Housing Testing Pool for FHIP and FHAP Funded Entities

Document 2024-06977 is a Final Rule published by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Federal Register on April 3, 2024, with an effective date of May 3, 2024. Through this final rule, HUD eliminates the restrictions for Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) grantees and for Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP) agencies that currently bar FHIP and FHAP funded entities from using HUD funds to deploy fair housing testers with prior felony convictions or convictions of crimes involving fraud or perjury. The final rule ensures that FHIP and FHAP funded entities are able to fully investigate criminal background screening policies that are potentially discriminatory under federal civil rights laws by using a diverse group of testers with actual criminal convictions. This final rule also improves inclusivity in HUD programs for people with criminal convictions, consistent with President Joseph R. Biden's March 31, 2022 Proclamation on Second Chance Month and Secretary Marcia Fudge's April 12, 2022 Memorandum, "Eliminating Barriers That May Unnecessarily Prevent Individuals with Criminal Histories from Participating in HUD Programs," and is based on a HUD determination that no valid interest is served by categorically barring FHIP and FHAP funded entities from using testers with such convictions. View the original at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/04/03/2024-06977/expanding-the-fair-housing-testing-pool-for-fhip-and-fhap-funded-entities.

No. Document 2024-06977 is not classified as economically significant under Executive Order 12866. Economically significant rules require OIRA review and are estimated to have impacts of $100 million or more per year.