(CNSNews.com) - "The Fair Housing Act requires that we proactively fight discrimination and segregation," Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge told a House hearing on Tuesday.
And to do that, HUD has proposed another regulation to "affirmatively further fair housing," which "requires communities to show us how they are doing that," Fudge said.
Fudge told Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) she couldn't say too much about the proposed rule until the public comment period closes in a few days, on April 24. "I think you'll be pleased with the rule," she told Wexton.
The 2023 rule builds on the one adopted in 2015 by the Obama administration (and later scrapped by the Trump administration).
Among other things, it would require state and local communities and public housing agencies that receive federal HUD funding to identify, prioritize and address fair housing issues.
Program participants would have to submit Equity Plans to HUD for review and acceptance. An Equity Plan, developed with "robust community engagement," would have to be submitted every five years. Both the Equity Plans and the required annual progress evaluations would be posted online.
Equity Plans would address the following topics: demographics, segregation and integration, racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty, access to community assets, access to affordable housing opportunities, and access to homeownership and economic opportunity.
HUD says fair housing means more than avoiding housing discrimination; it requires communities to eliminate historic patterns of discrimination -- basically, by building affordable housing in or near otherwise unaffordable neighborhoods.
According to a summary of the proposed regulation:
"Through this rule, HUD proposes to implement the obligation to affirmatively further the purposes and policies of the Fair Housing Act, which is Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, with respect to certain recipients of HUD funds.
"The Fair Housing Act not only prohibits discrimination, but also directs HUD to ensure that the agency and its program participants will proactively take meaningful actions to overcome patterns of segregation, promote fair housing choice, eliminate disparities in housing-related opportunities, and foster inclusive communities that are free from discrimination.
"HUD’s 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) final rule was a significant step towards implementing this requirement, which ensures that Federal policy and funding -- that for decades operated to foster segregation and inequality in housing -- instead is used in a systematic way to further the policies and goals of the Fair Housing Act.
"This rule proposes to retain much of the 2015 AFFH Rule’s core planning process, pursuant to which program participants will identify fair housing issues in their communities, set goals to remedy them, submit Equity Plans for review by HUD, and implement their Equity Plans. The proposed rule provides for greater transparency and public involvement, including by making proposed Equity Plans available to the public and allowing the public to provide information to facilitate HUD’s review of those plans..."
HUD said it plans to provide "robust technical assistance" to help communities identify fair housing issues and goal setting.
The proposed rule also provides "greater accountability" by including a "complaint and compliance review process that is modeled on those used under other Federal civil rights statutes that apply to recipients of Federal financial assistance."
(Lawsuits, in other words.)
"Through HUD’s use of all available tools, this proposed rule is the most faithful implementation of the promise made to the people residing in this Nation when the Fair Housing Act was first enacted more than fifty years ago," the proposed rule says.
Public comments on the proposal will be accepted for five more days.