For purposes of this part:

Annual plan update (update) means a public update to an Equitable Housing Finance Plan for the second or third year of a planning cycle.

Barrier means an element of an Enterprise's actions, products, or policies, or an aspect of the housing market that can reasonably be influenced by the Enterprise's actions, products, or policies, that contributes to an underserved community's limited share of sustainable housing opportunities, difficulties in accessing those sustainable housing opportunities, or the continuing adverse effects of discrimination affecting their participation in the housing market.

Equitable Housing Finance Plan (plan) means a three-year public plan developed with public engagement and adopted by each Enterprise describing how each Enterprise will overcome barriers to sustainable housing opportunities faced by one or more underserved communities through objectives, meaningful actions, and measurable goals.

Fair housing and fair lending laws means the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and implementing regulations. Additionally, with respect to an Enterprise, it means 12 U.S.C. 4545 and implementing regulations.

Performance report (report) means an annual public report by an Enterprise on its performance under its Equitable Housing Finance Plan and other information on equitable housing and fair lending that meets the requirements of § 1293.23 and any other FHFA requirements.

Sustainable housing opportunity means a rental or homeownership opportunity that includes one or more characteristics important to the needs of a tenant or homeowner. These characteristics include but are not limited to: being affordable to obtain and sustain; relating to a dwelling that meets basic habitability requirements and is reasonably able to withstand natural disasters or other climate-related impact events; relating to a dwelling that is improving the quality of housing stock in an area; being located in an area with access to educational, transportation, economic, and other important opportunities, including community assets; being accessible for persons with disabilities and available in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of an individual with a disability; not placing the tenant or homeowner in a position where they are unlikely to succeed in sustaining the housing opportunity over the long term; and providing reasonable opportunities to accommodate hardships by the renter or homeowner to allow continuation of the housing opportunity.

Underserved community is a group of people with shared characteristics or an area that is subject to current discrimination or has been subjected to past discrimination that has or has had continuing adverse effects on the group or area's participation in the housing market, historically has received or currently receives a lower share of the benefits of Enterprise programs and activities providing sustainable housing opportunities, or that otherwise has had difficulty accessing these benefits compared with groups of people without the shared characteristic or other areas. Shared characteristics include but are not limited to characteristics protected by fair housing and fair lending laws applicable to the Enterprises including race, color, religion, sex (including actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity), familial status, national origin, disability, marital status, age, receipt of public assistance income, exercise of rights protected by the Consumer Credit Protection Act, exercise of rights protected by the Fair Housing Act, dwelling age, dwelling location, and neighborhood age. Examples of underserved communities, if supported by adequate information in a plan pursuant to § 1293.25, include: the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, single parents, persons with disabilities, women of color, seniors with fixed income, self-employed individuals, individuals with limited mainstream credit and banking history, counties which have historically received a lower share of the benefits of Enterprise programs and activities, individuals with income variance such as skilled tradespeople or those that receive income through commission, persons with limited English proficiency, and multigenerational households.