Sunday, April 18th, 2021
“On April 11, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which was meant as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The 1968 Act expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, sex, (and as amended) handicap and family status. Title VIII of the Act is also known as the Fair Housing Act (of 1968)”.– US Department of Housing and Urban Development
More specifically, HUD also provides the following excerpt about the Fair Housing Act:
“It is illegal to discriminate in the sale or rental of housing, including against individuals seeking a mortgage or housing assistance, or in other housing-related activities. The Fair Housing Act prohibits this discrimination because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. A variety of other federal civil rights laws, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, prohibit discrimination in housing and community development programs and activities, particularly those that are assisted with HUD funding. These civil rights laws include obligations such as taking reasonable steps to ensure meaningful access to their programs and activities for persons with limited English proficiency (LEP) and taking appropriate steps to ensure effective communication with individuals with disabilities through the provision of appropriate auxiliary aids and services. Various federal fair housing and civil rights laws require HUD and its program participants to affirmatively further the purposes of the Fair Housing Act.
Attention to Details
Prior to July 23, 2020, HUD required communities to take steps to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing (AFFH) as part of the obligations it assumes when it accepted federal funding through HUD. HUD replaced AFFH on July 24, 2020 with a new rule called Preserving Community and Neighborhood Choice (PCNC), which “…defines fair housing broadly to mean housing that, among other attributes, is affordable, safe, decent, free of unlawful discrimination, and accessible under civil rights laws. It then defines ‘affirmatively furthering fair housing’ to mean any action rationally related to promoting any of the above attributes of fair housing.” The PCNC essentially dismantled the prior regulation by eliminating the requirement for a thorough and detailed assessment of local discriminatory housing practices.
The new Housing Secretary of HUD, Marcia L. Fudge began the process of reinstating the rule of AFFH just this past week. The action would “…reinstate a 2013 rule that codified a decades-old legal standard known as “disparate impact” as well as a 2015 rule requiring communities to identify and dismantle barriers to racial integration or risk losing federal funds.” (Washington Post, April 13, 2021)
One of the most widely known and utilized federal housing programs administered by HUD is the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. The CDBG funds are allocated to states and directly allocated to municipalities and counties designated as Entitlement Communities. A number of counties and cities in the Hudson Valley carry that designation. These include Dutchess, Orange, Rockland, and Westchester County. The cities include Kingston, Middletown, Mt. Vernon, Newburgh, New Rochelle, Poughkeepsie, White Plains, and Yonkers.
Entitlement communities were required to complete a comprehensive Analysis of Impediments (AI) to Fair Housing. The purpose of the AI is to serve as the substantive, logical basis of Fair Housing Planning, and provide essential and detailed information to policy makers, administrative staff, housing providers, lenders, and fair housing advocates.
The following excerpt may act as a guide for communities to conduct an AI to ensure a full understanding of the impact local actions have in terms of fair housing.
An Analysis of Impediments typically includes the following:
1. A comprehensive review of a jurisdiction’s laws, regulations, and administrative policies, procedures, and practices;
2. An assessment of how those laws affect the location, availability, and accessibility of housing
3. An assessment of conditions, both public and private, affecting fair housing choice for all protected classes; and
4. An assessment of the availability of affordable, accessible housing in a range of unit sizes.
Impediments to Fair Housing choice are:
a. Any actions, omissions, or decisions taken because of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin which restrict housing choices or the availability of housing choices; and
b. Any actions, omissions, or decisions which have the effect of restricting housing choices or the availability of housing choices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin.
New York State has also enacted laws to support the provisions of the Federal Fair Housing Act. Specifically, the State enacted Executive Law Article 15, Human Rights law, the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
I am hopeful this short blog provides a little more context of why Fair Housing is important and it must be seriously examined in all of our communities.
