Fair Housing

HUD extended the comment period for its proposed rule on the Adoption of Additional Safe Harbors for the Fair Housing Act Design and Construction Requirements. Comments were originally due on March 15 and are now due on April 13 and can be submitted here.

This week, HUD released a proposed rule on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AHHF) that would dramatically alter the Obama administration’s final rule published in 2015. The rule changes the definition of AFFH and eliminates the community participation and engagement requirement as well as the requirement that federal grantees complete an analysis of impediments to fair housing. Comments on the proposed rule are due 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

The Alabama Housing Finance Authority (AHFA) will hold a public hearing at 9:30 am CT on December 17 on its Five-Year Consolidated Plan for Program Years 2020-2024 for the Community Development Block Grant program (CDBG), the Emergency Solutions Grants program (ESG), the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program (HOPWA), the Home Investment Partnerships program (HOME) and the Housing Trust Fund program (HTF). The hearing will also cover the Program Year 2020 One-Year Annual Action Plans for the CDBG, ESG, HOPWA, HOME and HTF programs. The meeting will take place at the Alabama Center for Commerce, 7th Floor Auditorium, 401 Adams Avenue, Montgomery, AL 36104. Immediately following the conclusion of the Plans’ public hearing, representatives from ADECA and Western Economic Services, LLC of Portland, OR, will conduct a public meeting on the State of Alabama’s 2019-2020 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice.

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs will hold a roundtable to explain proposed amendments to the Compliance Monitoring Rules and proposed new rules related to Affirmative Marketing and Tenant Selection Criteria requirements on October 21 in room 1-100 at the William B. Travis Building, located at 1701 Congress Avenue, Austin, TX 78701, beginning […]

In a new Issue Brief Vincent Reina, PhD with the University of Pennsylvania argues for a national housing policy in the face of unprecedented housing challenges. This Issue Brief lays out several policy prescriptions for improving housing affordability and fairness, both for renters and owners: modifying the federal Housing Choice Voucher program, as well as […]

The San Jose City Council is set to adopt a new Housing Payment Equity Ordinance that prohibits the discrimination of income sources. The ordinance will cover all rentals—including single-family homes, duplexes, multifamily units, co-living spaces, accessory dwelling units, guest houses and mobile homes—with one exception: rooms in single-family homes where the landlord lives in the house, too.

HUD published its Implementation of the Fair Housing Act’s Disparate Impact Standard proposed rule in the Federal Register. If implemented, the proposed rule would raise the burden of proof to bring a disparate impact claim, making it harder to pursue housing discrimination cases. Comments are due by October 18, 2019.

The Arizona Department of Housing (ADOH) is holding a public meeting to receive input on the 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan and Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing on August 20, 2019 from 5 to 6 pm MST at the Scott Resort and Spa Resort, 4925 N. Scottsdale, Arizona 85251. As part of the process, ADOH is conducting two brief surveys to help identify community priorities.

HUD’s forthcoming Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding the Discriminatory Effects Standard was recently leaked to Politico. HUD claims that the proposed rule will bring its disparate impact standard in line with the 2015 Supreme Court ruling in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Community Project, Inc. The leaked notice of proposed rulemaking builds upon the Supreme Court’s ruling and proposes five steps for plaintiffs to bring a disparate impact claim.

The California State Senate passed SB 329, which would expand the California Fair Employment and Housing Act’s protections to add federal, state and local public assistance and housing subsidies—including Housing Vouchers—to the Act’s source of income protections

Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) reintroduced the Fair Housing Improvement Act of 2019 to protect veterans and low-income families from housing discrimination. This bill would expand the Fair Housing Act’s protections to prohibit housing discrimination based on source of income or veteran status.

The Ohio Housing Finance Agency released the draft 2020-2021 Urban Suburban Rural (USR) Opportunity Map for use in 2020 and 2021 funding rounds for review and comment. This iteration of the opportunity map reflects updated data for the 15 included indicators, as well as removal and/or replacement of several indicators that were included in the 2018-2019 version.