New Article: Rubin Danberg Biggs & Patrick Holland, Familial-Status Discrimination: A New Frontier in Fair Housing Act Litigation, 132(3) Yale L. J. 792 (2023). Abstract below:
A key provision in the Fair Housing Act (FHA)—the Housing for Older Persons Act (HOPA) exemption—has allowed municipalities to weaponize senior housing to discriminate against families, obstruct affordable housing, and perpetuate race and class segregation. This Note documents the nature, stakes, and origins of this pattern and advances three main prescriptive claims. First, advocates can and should work within the existing HOPA framework to hold municipalities accountable for exclusionary decisions. Second, courts should interpret the HOPA exemption to better reflect the goals of the FHA. Third, federal and state governments should make changes to fair-housing law to respond to its widespread abuse.
Poverty Law 