National Civil Rights Organizations Eager to Respond to Long-Awaited Fair Housing Regulation

WASHINGTON, DC – July 22, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — National civil rights organizations are pleased to see that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today issued an important proposed regulation under the Fair Housing Act. The draft regulation entitled, “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” implements Section 3608 of the Act.

The Fair Housing Act has two goals: to end housing discrimination and to promote diverse, inclusive communities. This section of the Fair Housing Act speaks directly to the second goal, embodying our strongly-held American values of fair access and equal opportunity.

Diverse, inclusive communities with access to good jobs, schools, health care, transportation, and housing are crucial to our nation’s prosperity in the 21st century. A hard-learned lesson from the recent economic crisis is that when some of our communities are targeted for discriminatory practices, all of our communities are detrimentally affected. Our global competitiveness is challenged when all of our communities do not have the opportunity to succeed together.

The proposed regulation released by HUD today does not create any new obligations for recipients of HUD funding as this provision of the law has been on the books for 45 years. This regulation gives HUD the opportunity to provide greater clarity and certainty for recipients of HUD funding, the housing industry, and the public at large about what the law means and what they can and must do to help achieve its goals.

We are looking forward to analyzing the proposed regulation and submitting our comments. It is our hope that the final rule will be strong, fair, and effective, and will be accompanied by vigorous enforcement.

Contact:
Deidre Swesnik
(202) 898-1661 x131