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Civil Rights Leaders Respond to Trump Administration’s
Latest Attack on Fair Housing, Legacy of Martin Luther King,
Jr
Proposal from HUD to Effectively Eliminate Affirmatively
Furthering Fair Housing Rule Weakens Enforcement of Fair
Housing Laws, Reinforces Decades of Discriminatory Practices
Leaders of The National Fair
Housing Alliance, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under
Law, National Low Income Housing Coalition, National Housing
Law Project, and Alliance for Housing Justice held a media
conference call last week to express opposition to the Trump
administration’s latest attack against a critical Fair
Housing Act tool for fighting housing discrimination. You
can listen to a recording of the full press call here. |
Lisa Rice, President and CEO, National Fair
Housing Alliance |
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The proposed rule released
by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
just days before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day would
effectively eliminate the Affirmatively Furthering Fair
Housing (AFFH) mandate under the Fair Housing Act. Congress
passed the Fair Housing Act one week after the assassination
of Dr. King in 1968 as an honorific to the civil rights
leader who had fought for passage of the bill. It remains an
important part of his legacy.
In response to HUD’s
proposal, a coalition of advocacy groups launched
fightforhousingjustice.org, where those who oppose the rule
and support the fight against housing discrimination can get
more information and submit a comment to HUD.
These civil rights leaders
released the following statements in response to the Trump
Administration’s move to eliminate the AFFH rule:
Kristen Clarke, President and Executive Director, Lawyers’
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
“The 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule was a
historic
victory for the civil rights
movement. Secretary Carson should do the right
thing: withdraw this
disastrous proposal and take steps to restart the
implementation of the 2015
rule. Secretary Carson not only seeks to
dismantle HUD’s system for
providing oversight of its fair housing
grantees, the proposed rule
also doubles as a transparently ideological
attack on equitable local
policies that advance racial and economic
justice. In no uncertain
terms, we condemn this latest attempt by Secretary
Carson to undermine fair
housing efforts in our country.”
Lisa Rice, President and CEO, National Fair Housing Alliance
“This proposed rule is not a
fair housing rule at all. It is a
deregulation rule, cloaked
in affordable housing language masquerading as a
fair housing rule. This rule
represents the antithesis of what fair housing
is all about. It discards
the anti-discrimination, equity and opportunity
lenses that were key
features of the 2015 regulation. It takes a free
market approach to solving
issues of inequality and segregation – a model
that has never worked. It
discards the requirement for jurisdictions and
public housing authorities
to complete a comprehensive analysis of barriers
to fair housing and adopt
plans to overcome them. It also does not give
jurisdictions the directed
guidance they requested to enable them to
fulfill their fair housing
obligations and will likely open them up to
increased liability. The GAO
issued a report admonishing HUD for not
effectively enforcing the
AFFH mandate. The 2015 rule addressed the GAO’s
findings and incorporated
its recommendations. This rule does neither. HUD
must abandon this ill-fated
effort and reinstate the 2015 regulation post
haste.”
Diane Yentel, President and CEO, National Low Income Housing
Coalition
“Secretary Carson’s proposal is a complete retreat from
critical
efforts to undo historic,
government-driven patterns of housing
discrimination and
segregation throughout the U.S. This proposed rule
underscores Secretary
Carson’s fundamental misunderstanding or willful
misreading of the Fair
Housing Act and its obligations. His proposal would
allow communities to ignore
the essential racial desegregation obligations
of fair housing law and is
the latest of Secretary Carson’s attempts to
weaken and disrupt HUD’s
fair housing duties. Secretary Carson must
abandon the ill-conceived
proposal to gut the AFFH and instead work to
vigorously enforce his
obligation to further fair housing in our
country.”
Shamus Roller, Executive Director, National Housing Law
Project
“HUD has proposed a rule that advances the Trump
Administration's
deregulation agenda under
the guise of fair housing. Make no mistake: this
rule promotes neither fair
housing nor affordable housing objectives.
Instead, this proposal
continues the Administration’s pattern of
attacking civil rights and
housing access. HUD’s proposal releases
jurisdictions from having to
examine whether they are perpetuating
discrimination and
segregation. Pretending our country’s legacy of
housing discrimination does
not exist is not a valid federal housing
policy. Putting our heads in
the sand will not suddenly create inclusive
communities, nor will it
address the enduring impacts of practices such as
redlining and
government-sanctioned segregation."
Maria Zamudio, Associate Director, Housing Rights Committee
of San Francisco with the Alliance for Housing Justice and
Homes for All
“With these proposed changes
to AFFH and HUDs fair housing policies,
Trump and his administration
are simply trying to remove regulations to
allow his developer friends
to profit off of discrimination, exploitation
and displacement. We can see
through these false solutions. Our communities
are organizing to protect
ourselves and are winning new protections to
fight for real solutions to
the housing crisis. Instead of gutting fair
housing protections, HUD and
the federal government should invest in renter
protections like rent
control and just cause eviction protections, full
funding to rehabilitate and
maintain public housing, and in millions of new
units of social housing for
all people that is safe, dignified and
sustainable for our people
and the planet.”
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