Livestream
Event Recap
The fifth panel in the Perspectives on Fair Housing Series focused on the legal significance of the FHA and limitations that challenge the government’s capacity for proactively advancing fair housing. Panelists included Nestor Davidson, Albert A. Walsh Chair in Real Estate, Land Use, and Property Law and Faculty Director, Urban Law Center, Fordham University; Eduardo Peñalver, Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law, Cornell Law School; and Lisa Rice, President and CEO, National Fair Housing Alliance.
Rice spoke to the uniqueness of the FHA, the disparate impact rule, and the importance of using advocacy to push for compliance with the more recent Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) legislation. Davidson went more deeply into AFFH, its creation during the Obama administration, reversal during the Trump administration, and what the next administration can do to mandate fair housing practices. Peñalver spoke to challenges around reviving the AFFH rule and how enforcement is impossible without talking about race, which bumps up against the Supreme Court’s hostility to race-conscious policymaking.
The group then discussed what bold actions can be made to ensure fair housing legislation is a permanent fixture in American policy going forward.
Full recordings and recaps of each event can be found here.
