HUD has posted four short fact sheets on the HUD Exchange homepage related to the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) final rule. Two of the AFFH fact sheets address the requirement of public participation in the development of an Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH). A third describes how local governments and public housing agencies (PHAs) can collaborate to prepare joint or regional AFHs. The fourth explains that when the first AFH is due to HUD depends on when a new 5-Year Consolidated Plan (ConPlan) or a new 5-Year PHA Plan is due. An infographic shows when the first round of jurisdictions receiving CDBG funds will be required to submit their AFHs.
Under the old AFFH system, a jurisdiction certified that it had conducted an Analysis of Impediments (AI) to fair housing choice, but there was no requirement that the public have an opportunity to provide input during the drafting of the AI. The final AFFH rule replaces the AI with the AFH and requires public participation. The public participation provisions simply modify the existing ConPlan regulations (24 CFR part 91) by adding the term AFH. The fact sheet for jurisdictions submitting ConPlans makes clear that there must be at least one public hearing during the creation of the AFH and that the public must have at least 30 days to submit comments. The public participation fact sheet for PHAs is very similar, but cites the relevant resident participation provisions that PHAs must follow at 24 CFR part 903.
The fact sheets and infographic are at: https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/affh and https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/CPD-AFFH-Timeline-Infographic.PDF
NLIHC has posted a preliminary overview of the final AFFH rule at: http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/Preliminary-Overview_Final-AFFH-Rule.pdf
NLIHC will post a more detailed outline about the final AFFH rule soon.