Algorithms and predictive technologies are being used to an increasing extent in housing (i.e., in tenant screening, lending, appraisals, and housing advertising). While algorithms have the potential to increase equity by removing human bias from decision-making, there is very little transparency and oversight over these tools. There is a real threat that these technologies are in fact replicating and amplifying existing biases and discrimination. In this episode of Justice Above All, Thurgood Marshall Institute researchers speak with three experts on the risks and promise of the use of algorithms in the housing sector.
Senior Researcher and Statistician, Thurgood Marshall Institute
Senior Policy Counsel and Co-Manager of the Equal Protection Initiative, Legal Defense Fund
Advocacy Director for the Human Right to Housing Project, Maryland Legal Aid
Chief AI Officer, National Fair Housing Alliance
During the Great Depression, the federal government introduced a plethora of new programs, such as the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), the Federal Housing Administration, and the Veterans Administration mortgage program, to protect homeowners from “the volatility of the markets.” As they developed these programs, the government “designed and implemented an elaborate, nationwide system of racial classification of individual neighborhoods for virtually every major city in the United States, now known as redlining.” (Source: Thurgood Marshall Institute)
As lenders and mortgage brokers looked at geographically coded maps, they systematically excluded Black Americans from home financing opportunities. They therefore also excluded Black communities from the federal investments that accompany such home financing programs.
Read “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America,” authored by Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) Fellow Emeritus Richard Rothstein here.
In the United States, wealth is distributed in a grossly unequal manner, with wealth inequality increasing sharply in recent years. Recent data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances shows that 1% of asset-holders in the United States own about 40% of America’s wealth, while 90% of households own less than 25% of the wealth. This report provides a look at the Black-White racial wealth gap in the United States today, explains the historical foundations and contemporary drivers of the gap, and offers a lens for developing and assessing policies to address these structural disparities. (Source: Thurgood Marshall Institute).
The report emphasizes three essential shifts to ensure future protection in the context of AI and housing: first, enhancing the review and approval processes for AI tools prior to their deployment; second, shifting the responsibility for addressing harm from individuals to corporations and regulatory bodies; and third, incorporating an intersectional approach in the design and regulation of AI tools and models. The report also discusses the challenges of enforcing civil rights in the digital era and suggests integrating privacy with civil rights protections to prevent discrimination and promote fairness in housing.
TMI Report
