FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
National Fair Housing Alliance Responds to HUD\u2019s Withdrawal <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n of Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule (AFFH)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, the National Fair Housing Alliance\u00ae (NFHA\u2122) released the following statement from Lisa Rice, President and Chief Executive Officer, in response to the Department of Housing and Urban Development\u2019s (HUD) decision to withdraw the 2021 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Interim Rule (AFFH) and replace it with a version that effectively eliminates the AFFH requirement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPresident Trump has shown once again his strong desire to eviscerate our nation\u2019s fair housing protections by rejecting the letter and spirit of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing mandate which is codified in the Federal Fair Housing Act. If implemented, the Administration\u2019s proposed Interim Rule will take the \u201cfair housing\u201d out of the 1968 Civil Rights Act\u2019s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing mandate. The President and Secretary Scott Turner have proposed a new rule that significantly waters down the legal requirement making this important fair housing provision a toothless tiger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing mandate requires all entities\u2014including jurisdictions and public housing authorities\u2014that receive federal funding for housing and community development activities to operate their programs in a manner that affirmatively furthers the purposes of our nation\u2019s fair housing laws. This means, for example, cities cannot have discriminatory exclusionary zoning ordinances, blood-relative only laws, unfair tax-lien foreclosure codes, or other policies, programs, or practices that support discrimination, racial segregation, or that lead to unnecessary harmful outcomes for women, families with children, people with disabilities, people of color, and other protected groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This newly proposed rule, which contains misrepresentations, demonstrates the deep lack of care, compassion and competence the nation has seen from the Trump-Musk administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In the haste to fire highly-skilled staff, it would appear HUD has not relied on fair housing experts to devise this proposed rule, resulting in guidance that will only lead to confusion, non-compliance and increased litigation\u2014all of which can destabilize our nation\u2019s volatile and fragile housing market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our nation is facing a fair and affordable housing crisis of unprecedented proportions. Last year alone, we saw record-breaking levels <\/a>of housing discrimination complaints. Unaffordable housing is the second major concern among the American people. Homeowners insurance is becoming out of reach for too many families. And in many cities, evictions are happening at a higher rate than before the COVID pandemic. Yet, as the nation faces a fair and affordable housing crisis, instead of helping us obtain the American Dream, President Trump and Secretary Turner are causing nightmares by turning their backs on tens of thousands of victims of housing discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This proposed rule takes us back to the 1980s when jurisdictions could demonstrate their commitment to fair housing by simply hosting a poster contest. It moves us further away from what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders envisioned when they championed the Fair Housing Act\u2014a nation where everyone can live in a safe, secure home in a healthy, well-resourced, vibrant community free from discrimination. The National Fair Housing Alliance and our members will vigorously oppose this proposed rule and fight to ensure a future where housing discrimination will have no place in America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n About Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Imagine a society in which everyone can live in a neighborhood, free from discrimination, and with ample affordable and accessible housing options, fresh air, clean water, quality healthcare, healthy foods, good banks and credit unions, sound public transportation, living wage jobs, and quality internet. What if every child lived in a safe, secure home and could attend a well-resourced and high-performing school? That is what Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing is all about\u2014expanding opportunity and creating communities where we all can thrive. This is what Congress intended when it passed the Fair Housing Act in 1968. Congress instructed HUD to take active steps to end housing discrimination, eliminate housing segregation and its ill effects, and dismantle unfair barriers to ensure people could have safe and decent housing in vibrant communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, a framework for fully enforcing these obligations was not put into place until 2015 when HUD promulgated a comprehensive Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Rule which gave local jurisdictions, public housing authorities, and community stakeholders the process and data needed to identify and redress local barriers to fair housing and equitable opportunity. That framework was eliminated by President Trump in 2018. President Biden then implemented a standard, in 2021, requiring entities to complete a fair housing analysis, such as the well-established Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing (under which a jurisdiction identifies barriers to fair housing and specific actions the jurisdiction will take to overcome those barriers). The 2021 rule also required entities to certify that they were complying with HUD\u2019s well-established standard of taking meaningful, results-oriented steps to comply with and advance the goals of the Fair Housing Act. With this interim final rule, the Trump Administration\u2014without following notice and comment procedures first\u2014is removing this long-standing requirement and replacing it with a much watered-down standard that merely requires entities to certify they have taken steps \u201crationally related to promoting fair housing.\u201d This effectively tells HUD grantees that they can ignore the AFFH requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently, where you live has a huge impact on how your life will unfold and that varies tremendously by neighborhood. That is because, for centuries, federal, state, and local governments, and other entities like public housing authorities, engaged in housing discrimination, fostered segregation, enacted unfair policies, and funneled investments in a way that helped and supported some in our society while denying opportunities to and harming others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, some cities vigorously enforced racially restrictive covenants and\/or enacted restrictive zoning policies to keep people of certain races and\/or religions out of certain areas. Some municipalities down-graded zoning in areas where people of color lived making it easier for landfills, oil refineries or other toxic facilities to be placed in those neighborhoods. Some states used federal funds to build highways that siphoned off communities of color, isolating them, eviscerating economic hubs, and significantly reducing the amount of green spaces in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These unfair policies created inequitable structures like residential segregation, the dual credit market<\/a>, appraisal inequities<\/a>, restrictive zoning, biased technologies<\/a>, and other unjust structures that are still with us harming millions of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The AFFH statutory mandate states that any entity\u2014local governments, states, housing authorities, etc.\u2014receiving federal funding for a housing or community development purpose, must use those funds, as well as operate all of their programs, in a manner that affirmatively furthers fair housing opportunities. It requires entities to go beyond a commitment to not engage in discrimination. This rule ensures every entity receiving federal funding for housing or community development to use those dollars, as well as operate all of their programs, in a way that expands fair housing opportunities, increases the supply of affordable and accessible housing, and creates well-resourced, viable communities where everyone can thrive. That mandate continues to exist in the statute, regardless of this Administration\u2019s attempt to write it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n ###<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) is the country\u2019s only national civil rights organization dedicated solely to eliminating all forms of housing and lending discrimination and ensuring equal opportunities for all people. As the trade association for 200 fair housing and justice-centered organizations throughout the U.S. and its territories, NFHA works to dismantle longstanding barriers to equity and build diverse, inclusive, well-resourced communities.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: National Fair Housing Alliance Responds to HUD\u2019s Withdrawal of Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule (AFFH) Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, the National Fair Housing Alliance\u00ae (NFHA\u2122) released the following statement from Lisa Rice, President and Chief Executive Officer, in response to the Department of Housing and Urban Development\u2019s (HUD) decision to withdraw the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":433,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n