HUD MOVES TO RESTORE FAIR HOUSING RULES
Regulations were rescinded by Trump administration
Housing Secretary Marcia Fudge on Tuesday moved to reinstate fair housing regulations that had been gutted under President Donald Trump, in one of the most tangible steps that the Biden administration has taken thus far to address systemic racism.
The effort comes less than three months after President Joe Biden signed a series of executive orders aimed at increasing racial equity across the nation, including directing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to examine and reverse actions taken by the Trump administration that undermined fair housing principles.
The Biden administration plans to reinstate a 2013 rule that codified a decades-old legal standard known as “disparate impact” as well as a 2015 rule requiring communities to identify and dismantle barriers to racial integration or risk losing federal funds, according to notices posted Tuesday morning by the Office of Management and Budget signaling that the rules have been accepted for review.
The two rules are integral to the enforcement of decades-old fair housing law barring discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability that has far-reaching impact, say civil rights attorneys. Housing is central to the Biden’s administration efforts to address racial inequity, which includes boosting Black homeownership and increasing rental housing in neighborhoods with more educational and economic opportunities, because where one lives is closely tied to schooling, employment, health and wealth.
Children growing up in racially segregated, low-income neighborhoods are more likely to attend struggling schools, resulting in lower college attendance and future earnings, researchers have found. They are also exposed to more crime and heavier policing as well as environmental toxins, detrimental to long-term mental and physical health already harmed by the lack of grocery stores selling fresh food.
“So much of wealth inequality has its basis in housing discrimination and the country’s failure to address fair access to housing,” said Dennis Parker, executive director of the National Center for Law and Economic Justice.
The OMB notices, the first official sign that the process to rescind Trump regulations in favor of Obama-era rules has been set in motion, reveal few details of how the Biden administration plans to go about making the changes. The OMB received the rules Monday and posted their statuses early Tuesday. The reinstatement of HUD’s discriminatory effects standard known as disparate impact is a proposed rule. The effort to restore the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing requirement that communities remove barriers to racial integration is an interim final stage.
The rules’ substance will be made public within 90 days once they have been reviewed internally and published in the Federal Register.
HUD last year received more than 7,700 complaints alleging discrimination, according to the agency. The highest number of complaints pertained to housing discrimination on the basis of disability and race. The agency said it also received many complaints alleging lending discrimination as well as unfair treatment of women tenants facing sexual harassment.
In recent video remarks commemorating Fair Housing Month and the 53rd anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, the last major piece of legislation of the civil rights movement, Fudge stated that “the purpose of the law is to bring an end to discrimination in housing and to eliminate the patterns of racial and ethnic segregation and economic disparities that have long existed in our neighborhoods and communities.”
“We are focused on putting fair housing and civil rights back at the forefront of HUD’s mission,” she said.