HR 3060
No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act of 2025
TL;DR
Rep. Yvette Clarke's bill would ban facial recognition, fingerprint scanners, and other biometric technologies in most federally-funded housing (public housing, Section 8 properties, and HUD-assisted developments). It also requires HUD to study how biometric and algorithmic tenant screening tools discriminate against renters, particularly people of color, women, and the elderly.
How This Might Impact Your Business
Property management companies operating HUD-assisted housing (public housing, Section 8, project-based rental assistance) would be prohibited from installing or using facial recognition, fingerprint, iris, or voice recognition systems on covered properties.
Landlords already using biometric access controls in covered properties would need to remove them and switch to traditional access methods like keys or fobs.
Proptech vendors selling biometric entry systems, smart building platforms, and AI-powered tenant screening tools would lose a segment of the affordable housing market.
AI tenant screening companies (background check algorithms, rental scoring tools) face a HUD-led investigation into discriminatory outcomes, with a report due to Congress within one year of enactment.
No specific monetary penalties are listed, but HUD would enforce compliance through its existing authority over federally-assisted housing contracts and funding.
Market-rate housing, private landlords not receiving federal assistance, and homeowner-occupied buildings are not covered.
Bill is in early committee stage (House Financial Services), so no immediate deadline, but affordable housing operators should prepare for potential enactment.
What Should You Do
Inventory any biometric access, security, or tenant management systems currently deployed across your HUD-assisted or public housing portfolio and identify replacement costs.
If you sell proptech or tenant screening AI, map how much of your revenue comes from federally-assisted housing customers and prepare alternative product offerings.
Ask your legal or compliance team to review tenant screening algorithms for documented fairness testing, since HUD scrutiny of these tools is coming regardless of whether this specific bill passes.
Track the bill's progress through the House Financial Services Committee and flag any markup hearings to your government affairs contact.
Engage with industry associations (NMHC, NAA, NAHRO) submitting comments, especially if you rely on biometric systems for security in high-crime property locations.
Who It Affects
Sponsors
Status Timeline
committee
Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
April 29, 2025