Fair housing testers working with Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) grantees and Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP) agencies are used to identify systemic biases in the housing industry. These testers mimic real-world housing transactions to uncover racial, gender, and other forms of discrimination.

To investigate whether screening policies are discriminatory, HUD wants agencies to use testers with actual criminal backgrounds.

Earlier this year, HUD published inflation-adjusted civil penalty amounts for individuals or companies that were found to have violated a variety of different housing-related laws, including the federal Fair Housing Act.