The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule is back, but with one critical change that seems to respond to complaints used by Trump administration officials to rescind the rule in 2020.
Tracy Jan reports:
Nearly a year after the Trump administration replaced an Obama-era fair housing rule that critics decried as “burdensome” and that President Donald Trump alleged would “abolish” suburbs, President Biden’s housing department is restoring the requirement that communities take steps to reduce racial segregation or risk losing federal funds.
The Biden administration proposed the rule change back in April.
The reinstated Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule will have significant differences from the original version crafted by the Obama administration. A mandate that "communities undergo an extensive analysis of local barriers to integration and submit plans to dismantle them to the Department of Housing and Urban Development" has been nixed, explains Tran. The Biden administration justified the change by describing the assessment requirement as "unnecessarily burdensome," echoing former HUD Secretary Ben Carson's criticism of the AFFH.
Jonathan Zasloff—who has criticized the AFFH as implemented by the Obama administration as ineffective in an article for Planetizen in August 2020—is quoted in the article criticizing the Biden administration's changes to the AFFH rule.
“This doesn’t reverse the damage of the Trump administration,” said Jonathan Zasloff, a professor who teaches housing discrimination at UCLA School of Law. “The entire point of the 2015 rule was to have a standard data set. What gets measured gets dealt with.”
According to the article, local jurisdictions "must still maintain records of the actions they are taking to promote fair housing, even if they are not required to submit them."
Planning Fair: How Fair Housing Intersects with Planning
The successful implementation of fair housing laws requires the active participation of urban planners, land use boards, elected officials, and the wider planning community.
Boston to Require Fair Housing Review for New Developments
The Boston Zoning Code is one of the first in the nation to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing.
I Have Spent My Career Advocating for Fair Housing. It's Good to See Obama's Rule Go.
The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, as adopted by the Obama administration and scrapped by the Trump administration, didn't include the policy tools necessary to achieve fair housing in the United States, according to this opinion piece.
What ‘The Brutalist’ Teaches Us About Modern Cities
How architecture and urban landscapes reflect the trauma and dysfunction of the post-war experience.
‘Complete Streets’ Webpage Deleted in Federal Purge
Basic resources and information on building bike lanes and sidewalks, formerly housed on the government’s Complete Streets website, are now gone.
Downtown Los Angeles on the Rise: A Promising 2025
Fueled by new developments, cultural investments, and a growing dining scene, downtown Los Angeles is poised for significant growth in 2025, despite challenges from recent wildfires and economic uncertainties.
Supporting Indigenous Land Reclamation Through Design
Harvard students collaborated with the Sac and Fox Nation to develop strategies for reclaiming and co-managing ancestral lands in Illinois, supporting Indigenous sovereignty through design, cultural storytelling, and economic planning.
A Plan to Expand Tree Canopy Across Dayton
Dayton is developing an urban forest master plan, using a $2 million grant to expand its tree canopy, address decades of tree loss, and enhance environmental equity across the city.
Decarbonizing Homes: The Case for Electrifying Residential Heating
A new MIT study finds that transitioning residential heating from natural gas to electric heat pumps can significantly reduce carbon emissions and operational costs.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
.jpg){kind=link}
Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research