ACLU Applauds Release of Proposed HUD Rule on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 19, 2023
CONTACT
Gillian Branstetter, ACLU, gbranstetter@aclu.org
WASHINGTON — Today the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a proposal to restore a regulation implementing the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) obligation, which will combat residential segregation and promote equal access to housing for all.
“This is a critical step by Secretary Fudge to promote housing opportunity and fully realize the promise of the Fair Housing Act nationwide,” said Sandra Park, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project. “Housing policy continues to drive discrimination against communities of color, families with children, domestic and sexual violence survivors, and people with disabilities. Communities deserve tools to dismantle practices that entrench segregation, as well as support for programs that expand housing access for all. The proposed rule rightly recognizes that communities should work toward eliminating unjust eviction and criminal record screening policies and local nuisance ordinances that disproportionately harm Black women and their families. We look forward to providing comments and working with the federal government to ensure the rule benefits communities across the country.”
Under the 1968 Fair Housing Act (FHA) and other federal law, HUD is mandated to actively combat and undo decades of policies that have contributed to residential segregation and housing discrimination. In 2015, HUD published the first AFFH rule, establishing a community-centered process for analyzing patterns and causes of segregation and neighborhood disparities that could serve as the basis for local jurisdictions to establish actionable steps for achieving fair housing goals.
In 2020, the Trump administration repealed the 2015 rule and sought to significantly weaken HUD’s obligation to address housing discrimination and advance fair housing opportunities to vulnerable and marginalized communities.
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking can be found here.
To learn more about the ACLU’s Systemic Equality agenda, click here.
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