NYU Furman Center Responds to HUD’s Assessment of Fair Housing Delay
New York, NY – (RealEstateRama) — In January 2018, the Trump administration announced that it was delaying the deadline for jurisdictions to complete an important analysis intended to ensure that communities are acting to reduce residential segregation and remove barriers to fair housing choice.
The federal Fair Housing Act, passed in 1968, outlaws discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, family status, national origin, or disability. As part of its mandate, the law requires that localities receiving federal housing and urban development funds take steps “affirmatively to further” fair housing. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a final rule clarifying that requirement. The final rule requires that localities, through extensive community engagement and data analysis, complete a standardized, in-depth evaluation of residential segregation and disparities in access to opportunity within the jurisdiction and the broader region, and identify the factors contributing to these fair housing issues. The jurisdiction is then required to identify specific and measurable steps to reduce these barriers to integration within a stated timeline. This evaluation is called an Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH), and it replaces a less robust fair housing evaluation HUD previously required of jurisdictions called the Analysis of Impediments (AI).
In January 2018, the Trump administration announced that it was delaying the deadline for jurisdictions to submit their AFHs until the next deadline they would face after October 30, 2020. In the interim, jurisdictions must complete only the AI previously required.
In response to this delay, the NYU Furman Center evaluated some of the potential costs of the Trump administration’s action. The comments, prepared by NYU Furman Center Faculty Directors Vicki Been and Katherine O’Regan, focus specifically on the public engagement process, and were submitted to HUD on Tuesday, March 6, 2018.
