STATEMENT: New HUD Rule Will Actively Increase Housing Insecurity and Discrimination

Author

Center for American Progress

Release Date

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

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Washington, D.C. — The Trump administration entered a rule into the Federal Register that would weaken civil rights protection and increase housing segregation by rolling back the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, an Obama-era regulation that ensures that local governments comply with the Fair Housing Act. Following the publication of the rule, Alexandra Cawthorne Gaines, vice president of the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:

Housing discrimination and structural racism in the housing market have been key drivers of poverty and obstacles to wealth-building for generations of Black, Native, Latinx, disabled, LGBTQ, and other Americans protected under the Fair Housing Act. The rule, as currently designed, helps address the discrimination that still prevents so many from finding a safe, decent, and affordable place to call home by requiring the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and local governments to actively identify and rectify the past and present harms of housing discrimination and segregation.

By rolling back the AFFH rule, the Trump administration is actively increasing housing insecurity and discrimination while further exacerbating the housing crisis taking place in communities nationwide. This latest rule is just another example of the Trump administration rejecting progress made under the Obama administration to reduce poverty and address racial discrimination. Once again they are turning back the clock and making it harder for all Americans to secure housing that provides the conditions and supports everyone needs to be healthy and thrive. The Trump administration should instead seek agency actions that immediately restore and aggressively resume AFFH’s effective implementation—and that further and strengthen overall fair housing protections.

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