“At the request of the president, HUD will be tearing down the Obama Administration’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule,” Housing Secretary Ben Carson said announcing the move.
“In nearly every case, it is a fact that local governments are more adequately equipped to deal with their community’s unique needs than any unelected bureaucrat in Washington.”
“President Trump made a promise to preserve America’s neighborhoods, I am pleased to report that promise has been kept,” Carson added.
From ABC: A HUD spokesperson confirmed the plan is to “terminate” the rule.
Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, pushed back, tweeting: “I mean…how will we know the difference? They effectively did this years ago.”
President Barack Obama’s 2015 fair housing rule was aimed at trying to encourage local communities to address deeply ingrained patterns of housing segregation that determine where Americans shop, go to school and access to health care.
Under Obama, federal money was contingent upon the community proactively considering how to reduce inequality and provide fair housing in regulations and permitting decisions.
New Orleans’ plan, for example, proposed expanding affordable housing options in areas with lots of economic opportunities and investing in public transit, schools, and parks in underserved communities.
But critics said the rule was confusing and the computer tool used to submit reports and measure progress was too difficult to use. HUD under Carson suspended implementation of the rule soon after Trump took office. The new proposal, released last January, would focus on the idea of housing choice rather than reducing discrimination, Carson has said previously.
I am unwavering in my commitment to fair housing — when I arrived at @HUDgov we had a disappointingly HUGE backlog of fair housing complaints that the Obama Admin had forgotten about. From January 2017 to present, we have successfully resolved 22,933 cases.
— Ben Carson (@SecretaryCarson) July 23, 2020
President @realDonaldTrump and I agree that the best run communities are the ones run locally. Today, we are tearing down the Obama Administration's Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, which was an overreach of unelected Washington bureaucrats into local communities.
— Ben Carson (@SecretaryCarson) July 23, 2020
