The new Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation was the focus of a HUD webcast published on October 8. In this webcast, HUD Secretary Julián Castro introduces a cast of HUD officials, each of whom focus on different components of AFFH:
Gustavo Velasquez, Assistant Secretary for the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO), provides an overview of the regulation, elaborating on its intent to provide communities greater clarity about their fair housing responsibilities and emphasizing the goal of helping communities take meaningful actions to overcome historic patterns of segregation and foster communities free from discrimination.
Helen Kanovsky, HUD General Counsel, explains the legal basis for the obligation to affirmatively further fair housing.
Harriet Tregoning, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD), describes the AFFH rule’s application to grantees of CPD programs, particularly Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) entitlement jurisdictions. She also describes the experiences of the jurisdictions that worked together regionally as part of the Sustainable Communities Initiative to create Fair Housing and Equity Assessments, prototypes for AFFH’s Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH).
Lourdes Castro Ramirez, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH), reviews the AFFH obligations of public housing agencies (PHAs) under the new regulations.
George Williams, Deputy Assistant Secretary for FHEO’s Office of Policy, Legislative Initiatives, and Outreach, provides comprehensive information about all aspects of the new AFFH rule.
The hour-long webcast is at https://www.hudexchange.info/training-events/courses/introduction-to-affirmatively-furthering-fair-housing-and-the-new-rule