Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) sent a letter on October 12 to HUD Secretary Ben Carson urging him to halt HUD’s efforts to weaken its Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulations, which help local communities meet their legal obligations to combat residential segregation and expand housing opportunity. Responding to HUD’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking related to the AFFH rule, Senator Booker urges the agency to “not move forward with these proposed alterations to the existing rules or elimination of the related assessment tools.”
The senator also responded to statements recently made by Secretary Carson that imply the administration is interested in changing the AFFH regulation to focus more on reducing local zoning and land-use regulations that drive up the cost of housing and limit supply. “Historic patterns of segregation cannot be addressed simply by increasing the supply of available housing,” Senator Booker states in the letter. “In order to uphold our American values of inclusion and integration, it is critical that communities work to identify obstacles to fair housing and to develop local solutions and community-specific strategies that address barriers to housing opportunities.”
NLIHC submitted comments in response to HUD’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, urging the agency to not make any changes to the AFFH rule until all 1,200 program participants have had substantial experience with it. NLIHC urged HUD to immediately resume implementing the existing AFFH rule.
Read NLIHC’s comments on HUD’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking at: https://bit.ly/2OPYtin
Read Senator Booker’s letter to HUD at: https://bit.ly/2Ss84Kr