HUD Withdraws Additional Fair Housing Guidance Documents

HUD’s Office of General Counsel recently published a notice announcing the withdrawal of 13 non-binding guidance documents addressing various Fair Housing Act-related issues.  The withdrawn materials include, among other things:

• Memorandum of Understanding Between DOJ and HUD Concerning Enforcement of the Fair Housing Act (December 7, 1990)
• Referrals of Pattern or Practice Fair Housing Cases to the DOJ (December 12, 2011)
• OGC Guidance FH Act Protections for LEP Persons (September 15, 2016)
• Office of General Counsel Guidance on the Fair Housing Act’s Treatment of Certain Special Purpose Credit Programs That are Designed to be Implemented in Compliance with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B (December 6, 2021).

The effective date of withdrawal of the guidance documents is retroactive to September 25, 2025.

This action follows HUD’s April 6, 2026, notice withdrawing eight separate Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) guidance documents (see prior coverage here).  HUD’s prior action, among other things, included the withdrawal of the FHEO Statement on the Fair Housing Act and Special Purpose Credit Programs.  While HUD previously withdrew this guidance document, which encouraged lenders to create Special Purpose Credit Programs (SPCPs), it had not until now withdrawn its formal statement that ECOA-compliant SPCPs are safe under the Fair Housing Act.  Together, these withdrawals remove both the policy encouragement and the interpretation clarification that many institutions previously relied upon in establishing certain SPCPs. 

HUD stated in its recent notice that the withdrawals are in furtherance of reducing unnecessary compliance burdens, enhancing the effectiveness of guidance documents, and promoting the underlying rule of law.  This recent withdrawal from HUD’s Office of General Counsel comes after the CFPB’s final rule amending ECOA’s Regulation B, that, among other things, significantly amended provisions relating to SPCPs (see prior coverage on the amendments here).