H.R. 3086 — Restoring Fair Housing Protections Eliminated by Trump Act of 2025

This section declares 11 congressional findings concerning actions by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that undermine fair housing protections, including (1) halting enforcement of the Equal Access Rule protecting homeless individuals from sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in shelters and services; (2) submitting rules to revise the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule and Equal Access Rule; (3) planning to eliminate 50% of HUD staff; (4) providing DOGE access to confidential fair housing complaints; (5) rescinding the AFFH rule via an interim final rule; and (6) canceling 78 Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) grants to nonprofits investigating housing discrimination, which a federal court temporarily reinstated on March 25, 2025.

This section revises the purpose section of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Act by (1) updating the section heading to "Purpose; mission of department"; (2) designating the existing congressional declaration of purpose as subsection (a); and (3) adding subsection (b) to establish the mission of the Department of Housing and Urban Development as creating strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all, including by strengthening the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers, meeting the need for quality affordable rental homes, utilizing housing as a platform for improving quality of life, building inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination, and transforming departmental operations.

This section directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, not later than 90 days after the date of enactment, to (1) repeal the interim final rule issued on March 3, 2025, entitled “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Revisions”; and (2) issue a rule defining “affirmatively further fair housing” as taking meaningful actions, in addition to combating discrimination, that overcome patterns of segregation, foster inclusive communities free from barriers restricting access to opportunity based on protected characteristics, address significant disparities in housing needs and access to opportunity, replace segregated living patterns with integrated and balanced living patterns, transform racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty into areas of opportunity, and foster compliance with civil rights and fair housing laws. (The duty applies to all activities and programs relating to housing and urban development conducted by program participants.)

This section requires the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to submit a report to Congress within 180 days of enactment reviewing complaints filed under section 810 of the Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3610) over the preceding five years that alleged discriminatory housing practices involving digital platforms or artificial intelligence—defined per section 238(g) of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (P.L. 115-232)—used for (1) advertisement delivery and targeting, (2) tenant screening, (3) automated mortgage underwriting, (4) dynamic pricing of real estate, or (5) real estate listings. The report must also analyze (1) trends and risks of discrimination via digital platforms in housing rental or purchase, (2) the Fair Housing Act's sufficiency to remedy such discrimination, and (3) steps the Secretary plans to address it.

This section directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to develop and update quarterly a publicly available online database of fair housing complaints under the Fair Housing Act and Violence Against Women Act, subject to confidentiality constraints, that includes (1) total complaints disaggregated by protected class; (2) complaints alleging Violence Against Women Act violations; (3) such complaints made by persons experiencing homelessness, tenants, or applicants for covered housing (disaggregated by housing type); (4) such complaints by state of residence; (5) retaliation complaints, including those alleging eviction; (6) complaint status, resolutions, remedies, and closure reasons; (7) complaints received by state and local fair housing agencies; (8) complaints resulting in HUD reasonable cause charges or Attorney General referrals; and (9) complaints received directly by the Attorney General. Covered housing includes housing assisted under the supportive housing for the elderly program (12 U.S.C. 1701q), supportive housing for persons with disabilities, housing opportunities for persons with AIDS, McKinney-Vento homeless assistance programs, HOME program, certain FHA-insured or Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac-financed housing, Section 236 rental assistance, public housing, Section 8 vouchers and project-based assistance, Housing Trust Fund projects, rural housing programs, low-income housing tax credit properties, and certain veterans homeless programs.