| Topics and Issues |
In August 2023, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the Ranking Member of House Financial Services, recently issued a press release
expressing concerns about instances in which the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other housing and property technology (PropTech), such as automated valuation models (AVMs), online housing platforms, tenant screening companies, and rent-setting companies, have been shown to lead to increased housing costs, discrimination, and other barriers to fair and affordable housing. In the letter, Ranking Member Waters asks the GAO to study and assess the effects that AI and PropTech may have on consumers and the U.S. housing market and report to Congress with their findings as well as any policy recommendations, as appropriate.
The press release covers a letter to the GAO. Waters said that “[e]vidence shows that the data fuels these screening technologies can disproportionately affect people of color’s ability to equitably access housing.7 Numerous lawsuits also highlight the ways in which tenant screening technologies are prone to pulling inaccurate data that may not even be connected to the applicant in question.” She added that “[t]enant screening reports often pull eviction filings even when a tenant was not ultimately evicted from their home. Given that Black women are more likely to have an eviction filed against them that ended up being dismissed, tenant screening errors may have a disparate impact on Black women and other women of color’s ability to access housing on fair and unbiased terms.”