The House Transportation-HUD (THUD) Appropriations Subcommittee held a hearing on February 12 at which stakeholders provided their perspectives on HUD’s recent policy changes related to fair housing. Witnesses testified about the effect of delays in fair housing funding as well as HUD’s decisions to reassess existing fair housing rules, including those related to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), disparate impact, and LGBTQ equal access.
Keenya Robertson, president of the Housing Opportunities Project for Excellence and chair of the National Fair Housing Alliance, testified that funding gaps forced her organization to temporarily cut experienced staff, with some not returning as they found other jobs elsewhere. She also said more funding is needed so that fair housing organizations and state and local agencies can investigate claims more effectively and conduct more outreach and marketing to better inform people about how to file complaints. She and witness Claudia Aranda of the Urban Institute also talked about the important work fair housing organizations do to bring fair housing claims and to develop protocols and procedures to better address discrimination.
THUD Subcommittee Chair David Price (D-NC) asked the witnesses how HUD’s recent decisions to change or suspend fair housing rules have impacted or could impact people facing discrimination. Ms. Robertson spoke about how the disparate impact rule, now under review by the Trump Administration (see Memo, 2/11), helps prevent discrimination of survivors of domestic violence, most commonly women and families with children. She explained that the disparate impact rule helps protect survivors from local ordinances and restrictions that require them to be evicted, while also helping to prevent families from being turned away when applying for affordable housing. Ms. Aranda spoke about how communities that began implementing the AFFH rule, now suspended by HUD, were finally taking a holistic approach to examining their housing needs. She noted that these communities benefited from the specific guidance the AFFH rule provided and were better able to reach out and engage diverse voices to ensure their planning reflected the needs of the overall community.
Representative John Rutherford (R-FL) discussed ways to improve the Housing Choice Voucher program to better help families with children find landlords willing to accept their vouchers. The witnesses discussed lengthening the time a person has to lease up their vouchers and improving services to better engage and support landlords to increase their participation in the program.
Learn more about the hearing at: https://bit.ly/2tywNkR