Senator Elizabeth Warren Holds Fair Housing Spotlight Forum; Take Action to Defend Civil Rights and Fair Housing!

By Kayla Blackwell, NLIHC Senior Housing Policy Analyst and Sarita Kelkar, NLIHC Policy Intern 

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, hosted “Fair Housing Under Fire,” a forum to spotlight the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle fair housing and civil rights laws, on January 13. Whistleblower accounts, interviews, and internal communications reveal how efforts to address housing discrimination at HUD are backsliding, from a failure to enforce fair housing to dismantling disparate impact regulations (see Memo, 9/29/25). “Fair Housing Under Fire” framed ongoing HUD actions against the severity of the nation’s housing affordability crisis with testimony from HUD whistleblowers Paul Osadebe and Palmer Heenan, National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) Special Counsel for Civil Rights Sasha Samberg-Champion, and Tennessee Fair Housing Council Executive Director Martie Lafferty.  

Senators Warren and Tim Kaine (D-VA) opened the forum by detailing the consequences of HUD’s undermining fair housing and civil rights protections and calling for accountability. Whistleblowers Heenan and Osadebe spoke next, sharing their accounts as individuals working directly within the Office of Fair Housing at HUD. “The ability to access housing decreases crime, keeps families safe, and increases economic productivity,” said Heenan. “Today, HUD leadership has chosen to fail in its mission. This failure is being accomplished through a three-part strategy. Getting rid of civil rights staff, constant interference in standard operating procedures, and weaponization of civil rights laws [where] HUD leadership has systematically starved fair housing enforcement.”  

“Political appointees blocked us from investigating cases or charges they didn’t like,” added Osadebe. “The American people deserve to know that the rights that people marched and bled and died for are being demolished. Congress must weigh in to stop the escalating weaponization of HUD funding.”  

Samberg-Champion followed by describing how HUD “is abdicating its responsibility to veterans seeking accessible housing, families seeking a place to live, LGBTQ people facing discrimination, women seeking to escape violent partners, prospective renters turned away because they were arrested for a misdemeanor twenty years ago, and prospective homeowners blocked from getting a fair mortgage by an unnecessary credit requirement.” Lafferty emphasized this reality by sharing the new difficulties in resolving complaints of housing discrimination, both offering insight into who and how individuals are impacted when HUD undercuts its commitment to fair housing. 

“As we think about the challenge of housing affordability in this country,” said Senator Tina Smith (D-MN), “we are hearing here stories of how an administration is actively working to make housing less accessible and less affordable to Americans.”  

Take Action to Defend Fair Housing and Civil Rights!  

Sign on here and tell your members of Congress that the “Fair Housing Act” is not optional, and HUD must defend civil rights in housing. Ask your Senators and Representatives to encourage the enforcement of the “Fair Housing Act” under HUD’s Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) office and fund the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) and the Fair Housing Assistance Programs (FHAP).    

Members of Congress should also cosponsor the “Fair Housing Improvement Act” (S.2827, H.R.5443), introduced by Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Representative Scott Peters (D-CA) to protect veterans and voucher recipients from housing discrimination.  

Go to NLIHC’s Take Action page and look up your member offices or call/send an email directly. 

Learn more about the Trump administration’s actions against fair housing here.