HUD Formally Posts Federal Register Notices Indefinitely Suspending AFFH Rule

The three Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) notices that HUD informally announced on May 18 (see Memo, 5/21) were formally published in the Federal Register on May 23. Through these notices, HUD has in effect indefinitely suspended implementation of the 2015 AFFH rule.

In the first notice, HUD withdrew - effective immediately - the January 5, 2018 Federal Register notice (see Memo, 1/8) that extended the deadline to 2024 or 2025 for an estimated 856 local governments to submit an Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH). In a second notice HUD withdrew the new Local Government Assessment Tool due, according to the notice, to various problems encountered by 18 of the 49 initial AFHs submitted for HUD review, 32 of which were ultimately approved. NLIHC argues that the problems cited as examples by HUD could have been easily fixed through the iterative HUD review process established in the AFFH rule. The third notice reminds all but the 32 jurisdictions with approved AFHs that they must instead use the Analysis of Impediments (AI) process, one that that the Government Accountability Office and fair housing advocates recognize as ineffective.

The first Federal Register notice is at: https://bit.ly/2GIEXvr

The second Federal Register notice is at: https://bit.ly/2GKlyKn

The third Federal Register notice is at: https://bit.ly/2GKrAdY

More about the 2015 AFFH rule is on page 7-5 of NLIHC’s 2018 Advocates’ Guide at: https://bit.ly/2G2zU8q

More about the Analysis of Impediments is on page 7-17 of NLIHC’s 2018 Advocates’ Guide at: https://bit.ly/2IckAIB