the Future of Change

Following the recent Supreme Court victory of the City of Miami in its efforts to hold banks accountable for discriminatory lending under the Fair Housing Act, the City of Philadelphia has filed its own action against Wells Fargo, alleging discriminatory lending practices there, including that the bank was twice as likely to steer African-American borrowers into high-priced loans than White borrowers.  I’ve written about the City of Miami case here and explored the question of whether cities can file suit under the FHA here and here.  With the Miami case in the rear-view mirror, and the issue of whether cities can sue under the FHA settled (they can), it is interesting to see Philadelphia moving so quickly to bring its own action.  Time will tell whether other cities will line up to do the same.  With fair housing enforcement unlikely to be very robust under the Trump Administration, it is good to see cities like Philadelphia taking on this critical issue.