Virginia Human Rights Act; equal credit opportunities; Virginia Fair Housing Law; nondiscrimination by automated decision systems. Provides that it is an unlawful discriminatory practice for any person to deploy, use, or rely on an automated decision system to make a decision pursuant to the Virginia Human Rights Act, provisions related to equal credit opportunities, or the Virginia Fair Housing Law that results in discrimination or an unlawful disparate impact or that intentionally or knowingly uses variables or data fields that serve as close proxies for protected characteristics. The bill requires a person that deploys, uses, or relies on such a system to (i) disclose the use of such system to any individual who is the subject of such decision; (ii) annually assess such system for bias, disparate impact, and discriminatory outcomes; and (iii) maintain for no fewer than two years from the date a decision is made certain documentation relating to such system.
Virginia Human Rights Act; unlawful discrimination. Prohibits any state agency or political subdivision in the Commonwealth from supporting, implementing, recognizing, or utilizing any program, process, or procedure that conveys or denies a benefit, advantage, or privilege to an individual based solely on such individual's race, sex, or ethnicity.
Zoning for Housing Production Pilot Program created; affordable dwelling unit policy incentives; report. Creates the Zoning for Housing Production Pilot Program to be administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development. To be eligible for a grant from the Program, an eligible locality, as named in the bill, is required to make a change to its zoning policies to allow for by-right development that is expected to further the goal of creating and maintaining mixed-income communities, affordable housing, and moderately priced housing, as those terms are defined in the bill. The Department is required to establish certain guidelines for the Program and to notify eligible localities of the existence and purpose of the Program no later than February 1, 2027. The bill has an expiration date of July 1, 2029.
Local rent stabilization authority; civil penalty. Provides that any locality may by ordinance adopt rent stabilization provisions. The bill provides for notice and a public hearing prior to the adoption of such ordinance and specifies that all landlords who are under rent stabilization may be required to give up to a two-month written notice of a rent increase and cannot increase the rent by more than the locality's rent stabilization allowance, described in the bill as the maximum amount a landlord can increase a tenant's rent during any 12-month period, in effect at the time of the increase. The bill sets such allowance as equal to the annual increase in the Consumer Price Index for the region in which the locality sits, states that such allowance is effective for a 12-month period beginning July 1 each year, and requires the locality to annually by June 1 publish such allowance on its website. Certain facilities, as outlined in the bill, are exempt from any such ordinance. The bill also requires such ordinance to provide a procedure by which a landlord may apply for an exemption from the rent stabilization provisions in situations where the net operating income generated by the rental facility has not been maintained due to escalating operating expenses or for other appropriate reasons as established by the locality. Finally, the bill provides that a locality may establish a civil penalty for failure to comply with the requirements set out in the ordinance that shall not exceed $2,500 per separate violation.
