HUD published in the Federal Register on August 16, “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing: Streamlining and Enhancements,” an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) inviting public comment on amending the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule (see Memo, 8/20). The ANPR asks for public comment on eight sets of questions. NLIHC urges advocates to submit comments stressing that HUD should not change the AFFH rule until all 1,200 local jurisdictions have had substantial experience with it over several years. To assist advocates, NLIHC has drafted a sample comment letter. A “Comprehensive Assessment of HUD’s Streamlining AFFH ANPR” offers more detail. Comments are due October 15.
As brief background, the opening summary of the ANPR lists five changes that HUD will propose making. HUD seeks to:
- Minimize regulatory burden;
- Create a process that is focused primarily on accomplishing positive results, rather than on performing an analysis of community characteristics;
- Provide for greater local control;
- Encourage actions that lead to greater housing supply; and
- Use HUD resources more efficiently.
The background section of the ANPR claims that the Local Government Assessment Tool is ineffective. As NLIHC has written (see Memo, 5/21), HUD is basing this claim on the experience of only the first 49 AFH submissions. Eighteen of the 49 were accepted by HUD on initial submission, and according to HUD 32 were ultimately approved. As advocates have noted, the AFFH rule anticipated a learning curve and provided for an iterative process by which HUD could identify problems with a draft AFH that a jurisdiction could fix.
One of three Federal Register notices HUD issued on May 23 identified seven categories of problems with the Assessment Tool, providing one example for each. NLIHC has noted that, based on those examples, most of the “problems” could have been addressed very easily by using the AFFH rule’s process of HUD offering suggestions for resolving a deficiency. One of the problems HUD highlighted was an egregious violation of the public participation requirements, a violation that warranted rejection of the AFH until adequate public participation was provided (see Memo, 5/21).
NLIHC’s sample comment letter is at: https://bit.ly/2R8DYeo
NLIHC’s “Comprehensive Assessment of HUD’s Streamlining AFFH ANPR” is at: https://bit.ly/2Pq2xlV
HUD’s ANPR is at: https://bit.ly/2OD43jG
More about the AFFH rule is on page 7-5 of NLIHC’s 2018 Advocates’ Guide, and more information about the flawed AI process is on page 7-17 of NLIHC’s 2018 Advocates’ Guide