The Fight for Housing Justice campaign has updated its website with a general advocate sample comment letter to make it easier to submit comments regarding HUD’s drastic proposal to make it virtually impossible for people in the Fair Housing Act’s “protected classes” to bring a charge of “disparate impact” against housing providers, governments, or large corporations. In addition, on September 26, campaign staff will be available for virtual office hours for those who would like to submit comments to ask questions and get commenting advice.
Among the updates to the website are general tips for making comments, talking points for commenters, and a one-pager, “How You Can Stop HUD from Harming Immigrants’ Fair Housing Rights.” Additional templates will be added in the coming weeks.
The September 26 virtual office hours will be open for 90 minutes starting at 12:30 p.m. ET. Facilitators will provide an overview of HUD's proposed Disparate Impact rule, provide commenting tips and strategies for advocates, and answer substantive questions that participants have about HUD's proposal. Register for the September 26 office hours at: https://bit.ly/2m5L8Vn
Disparate impact allows people to show that a housing policy had a discriminatory impact on them because of their race, sex, national origin, disability, or other protected characteristic – even if the policy appears on its face to apply to everyone equally.
The campaign urges commenters to individualize comments so that HUD has to explain its reasons for attempting to make use of disparate impact an insurmountable obstacle to achieving fair housing. Comments are due October 18.
The Fight for Housing Justice campaign is comprised of the National Housing Law Project, the Western Center on Law and Poverty, and the Shriver Center on Poverty and Law.
The Fight for Housing Justice campaign’s general advocate sample comment letter is at: https://bit.ly/2kUjXNf
Register for the Fight for Housing Justice office hours at: https://bit.ly/2m5L8Vn
The Fight for Housing Justice campaign website is at: https://www.fightforhousingjustice.org
NLIHC also has a sample comment letter and background information (see Memo, 9/16)
NLIHC’s sample comment letter is at: https://tinyurl.com/y54dqyqq