Report: Annual Housing Discrimination Complaints Near Record High
While AI creates new threats of digital redlining, steering, and bias in tenant screening and pricing.
The number of housing discrimination complaints filed nationwide in 2024 reached 32,321, one of the highest figures in more than two decades, according to the 2025 Fair Housing Trends Report recently released by the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA).
- Disability-related discrimination accounted for the largest share of complaints at 54.6 percent, followed by race, national origin, sex, familial status, and religion.
- Complaints based on national origin rose 8.45 percent from the previous year, marking the highest number since 2018.
- Retaliation complaints more than doubled from the previous year to the highest recorded level.
Meanwhile, the government’s ability to investigate complaints has been hampered by federal funding cuts and staff reductions at HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO), which ended 2025 with a third of the staff it had when President Trump took office in January 2025.
The NFHA is calling on Congress to hold an immediate oversight hearing and ensure HUD’s fair housing programs are fully funded. “America’s fair housing infrastructure is being dismantled and defunded in the very moment it’s needed most,” said Nikitra Bailey, NFHA Executive Vice President.
The report also examines how artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic housing tools are creating new threats of digital redlining, steering, and bias in tenant screening and pricing. NFHA calls for mandatory AI fairness audits and federal transparency standards to ensure these technologies don’t deepen existing inequities.
The full 2025 Fair Housing Trends Report, including data analysis, policy recommendations, and member case studies, is available here.
