TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on Jul 30, 2025

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is preparing to shut down seven major investigations into alleged housing discrimination and segregation across the South and Midwest, including some in which the agency had already found civil rights violations, The Commercial Appeal reports. In Memphis, the investigation being shuttered centered on claims that the city and Memphis Light, Gas and Water coerced residents of a poor Black neighborhood to sell their homes to make way for a new utility facility. Read the complaint filed by a city resident. HUD says the moves come in response to a  presidential executive order eliminating federal enforcement of “disparate-impact liability." According to a memo from the department, HUD no longer will "interpret environmental impacts as violations of fair housing law absent a showing of intentional discrimination.”