The Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) require equal treatment in loan terms, conditions of housing, and credit regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, familial status or disability. This means that many of the practices of predatory lending can be considered violating of these two acts. Targeting specific populations with high-priced loans, for example, is a violation. Treating minorities differently in lending practices is a violation as well. And when traditional credit agencies won't lend in particular neighborhoods leaving them to be serviced only by predatory lender, that's a violation as well.

The PLS project has made Fair Housing investigations of predatory lenders a priority, even though it takes enormous resources to conduct such an investigation. We feel that predatory lending and the unfair and unequal access to credit, is perhaps the most important civil rights issue in an increasingly market-based and global society.