On 7/23/2020, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the termination of the Obama Administration’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation issued in 2015. According to HUD, this rule “proved to be complicated, costly, and ineffective— so much so that Secretary Carson essentially removed its burden on communities by suspending the regulation’s 92 question grading tool in January 2018.” Replacing this rule is a brand-new rule called Preserving Community and Neighborhood Choice. According to HUD, this rule “defines fair housing broadly to mean housing that, among other attributes, is affordable, safe, decent, free of unlawful discrimination, and accessible under civil rights laws. It then defines “affirmatively furthering fair housing” to mean any action rationally related to promoting any of the above attributes of fair housing. Now, a grantee’s certification that it has affirmatively furthered fair housing would be deemed sufficient if it proposes to take any action above what is required by statute related to promoting any of the attributes of fair housing. HUD remains able to terminate funding if it discovers, after investigation made pursuant to complaint or by its own volition, that a jurisdiction has not adhered to its commitment to AFFH.”
The full HUD release can be found here.
