Today’s press release concerning HUD’s Fair Housing Initiative Program (“FHIP”) says all you need to know about HUD’s approach to eliminating housing discrimination. Out of more than $37 million dollars made available to improve fair housing in this program, HUD is spending about 20% on programs intended to educate the public and business about their rights and obligations, while 80% goes to funding private organizations that are in the business of either suing folks or filing HUD complaints. HUD is clearly much less interested in helping people obey the law than in punishing people who fail to obey it. The press release ends, of course, with information on how to file a complaint with HUD. There’s no mention of where to go for education on following the law. More
FHA Statistics
Numerosity, the ADA and FHA Class Action Numbers Game
“How to Lie with Statistics” by Darrell Huff is one of my favorite books, because statistical analysis is often critical in ADA class action and other kinds of civil rights litigation, and statistics are so often abused in these cases. The difference between the manageable defense of one or two properties and an unbelievably expensive defense involving hundreds or thousands can turn on whether a particular class meets the “numerosity” requirement in Rule 23(a)(1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. That requires the use, and often mis-use, of statistics. More