Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

15. Department of Housing and Urban Development · Notable

End use of special-purpose credit authorities to further equity

Done

509 15. Department of Housing and Urban Development

“Repeal the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation reinstituted under the Biden Administration and any other uses of special-purpose credit authorities to further equity.”

What has happened

  1. Done

    The last federal instrument encouraging equity-driven special purpose credit was rescinded. HUD led a seven-agency rescission — with the CFPB, DOJ, FDIC, NCUA, OCC and FHFA — of the February 2022 "Interagency Statement on Special Purpose Credit Programs Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B", the statement HUD describes as having "encouraged creditors to develop special purpose credit programs … in a manner designed to favor one class of Americans over another". The rescission notice tells creditors they "should not rely upon the Interagency Statement or other related issuances going forward". With HUD's two 2021 documents, FHFA's rule and the CFPB's advisory opinion already gone, no federal authority now promotes the use of special purpose credit to further equity, which is what the Quote asks. ECOA section 701(c) still permits special purpose credit programs, so the statutory authority itself remains.

  2. Partially done

    FHFA repealed 12 CFR part 1293, the Fair Lending, Fair Housing and Equitable Housing Finance Plans rule that required Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to file equity plans and was the vehicle for the enterprises' special-purpose credit programs (final rule effective 2026-03-09, adopting the 2025-07-28 proposal without change). The CFPB then rescinded its December 2020 Regulation B advisory opinion on for-profit special purpose credit programs on 2026-06-17, removing the safe harbour the sector relied on.

  3. Partially done

    HUD withdrew its own two special-purpose-credit documents. The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity's "FHEO Statement on the Fair Housing Act and Special Purpose Credit Programs" of 2021-12-07 was withdrawn effective 2025-09-17, one of eight FHEO guidance documents struck under EO 14192 and EO 14219; the Office of General Counsel's companion, "Guidance on the Fair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" of 2021-12-06, was withdrawn effective 2025-09-25. Both were announced in the Federal Register long afterwards, on 2026-04-06 and 2026-07-17.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • This Recommendation carries the same sentence as #1412 (major), which is done on the AFFH half. They are separate Recommendations because no single instrument satisfies both: the AFFH repeal is a HUD rule and this clause was answered by four other agencies plus two HUD guidance withdrawals. #1412’s second done event already cites the FHFA and CFPB actions.
  • Two of the events here were found through the guidance-withdrawal notices that answer #1409; reading those tables is what dated HUD’s own SPCP retreat to September 2025 rather than to the 2026 publication.
  • Lead, not Evidence: the Office of Legal Counsel opinion “Whether the Equal Credit Opportunity Act Creates Disparate-Impact Liability” (2026-06-12, https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10875206/whether-the-equal-credit-opportunity-act-creates-disparate-impact-liability/, PDF at https://www.justice.gov/olc/media/1445876/dl). It bears on the ECOA framework behind special purpose credit but decides a different question, so it is not attached to an event.
  • An alternative reading would be partial, on the ground that ECOA section 701(c) still authorizes special purpose credit programs and private creditors may still operate them.
Action
eliminate
Object
special-purpose credit authorities used to further equity
ID
1413