NLIHC Joins AFFH Comment Letter Urging Secretary Turner to Withdraw Interim Rule, Welcomes Organizations to Join Comment 

The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) invites advocates to join a public comment letter urging HUD Secretary Scott Turner to immediately withdraw the 2025 Affirmatively Further Fair Housing (AFFH) Interim Final Rule and reinstate the 2021 AFFH Interim Final Rule. The Trump Administration’s AFFH Interim Final Rule (IFR) nullified the rule and took effect on April 2, 2025 (see Memo, 3/3). NLIHC joined the public comment letter and welcomes national, state, and local organizations to join in support. Additionally, NFHA shared a condensed comment template for organizations who choose to add their own comment or provide additional insights on the intersection of housing and healthcare, education, or other issues. The deadline to submit comments on the IFR on Regulations.gov is May 2, 2025.  

Title VIII of the “Civil Rights Act of 1968 (the Fair Housing Act) requires HUD to administer its programs in a way that affirmatively furthers fair housing. The Fair Housing Act not only makes it unlawful for jurisdictions and public housing agencies (PHAs) to discriminate; the law also requires jurisdictions to take actions that undo historic patterns of segregation and other types of discrimination, as well as to take actions to promote fair housing choice and to foster inclusive communities. The protected classes of the Fair Housing Act are determined by race, color, national origin, sex, disability, familial status, and religion. 

The new AFFH rule requires grantees to simply attest that they have taken any action to promote fair housing. Secretary Turner claims the new rule will cut “costly red tape imposed on localities,” but for decades, advocates have warned that the promise of the “Fair Housing Act” never being fulfilled, and this failure continues to exacerbate racial disparities in housing and homelessness. PolicyLink has released a helpful explainer on the new AFFH rule.  

Read the NFHA comment letter here and add your organization here.  

Write your own comment letter using the NFHA comment template and submit on Regulations.gov by May 2, 2025.