Fair Housing Act

Aerial view of a single-family neighborhood with trees.

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.

October 15, 2024 - Jenny Raitt

Close-up of apartment rental listing on iPad or tablet device.

HUD Issues Fair Housing Guidance for AI

AI software used to select tenants or target housing advertisements has the potential to introduce discrimination and bias.

May 7, 2024 - Route Fifty

A Black couple holding contracts sits across the desk from a white mortgage lender.

Tenants and Home Buyers: Do You Know Your Fair Housing Rights?

Inconsistent application of fair housing laws across the country means tenants and home buyers of color and from other protected classes must educate themselves and be their own advocates.

April 29, 2024 - Defender

Wood-frame two-story rowhouses under construction.

Fair Housing Cannot Take a Back Seat to ‘Build, Baby, Build’

If we overlook fair housing principles in the plan to build US housing back better, we risk ending up right back where we started.

April 11, 2024 - James Jennings

Affordable Housing

Lessons in Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing

With HUD seeking comments on a revamped version of the Affirmatively Furthering fair Housing Rule, now is a good time to seek lessons from the one state to attempt to implement the federal rule at the state level.

April 4, 2023 - Terner Center for Housing Innovation

A group of tents line a street in front of Los Angeles City Hall.

Analysis: California’s Bumpy Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Implementation

California took the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule and ran with it. Fully realizing the goals of the AFFH in California will require more work, according to a recent analysis.

June 8, 2022 - Policies for Action

Austin Construction

Austin Considers Controversial Change to Affordable Housing Requirements

The city's commissioners are weighing the option of using neighborhood-level median income to set affordable housing restrictions, but the move could face lawsuits under the federal Fair Housing Act.

March 16, 2022 - Austin Monitor

Rep. Marcia Fudge

White House Reinstates Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule

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.

June 14, 2021 - The Washington Post

Neighbors

Racial Segregation in U.S. Neighborhoods

Despite the intentions of the nation's fair housing laws, neighborhoods in the United States continue to segregate by race.

April 15, 2021 - Brookings

Houston Sprawl

How to Fix Racist Housing Policies: Sue the Suburbs

Strengthening U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's civil rights enforcement could send a powerful signal to communities resistant to changing discriminatory housing rules.

February 25, 2021 - Vox

Boston

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.

February 23, 2021 - Shelterforce Magazine

Washington, D.C.

Biden Promises New Attention to Racial Inequality, Including Fair Housing

The Biden administration is announcing its intentions to overturn several controversial products of the Trump administration to weaken the the implementation of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the doctrine of disparate impact at its core.

January 28, 2021 - The White House

Trump Administration

Trump Takes a Final Swipe at the Civil Rights Act

The Department of Justice has proposed a change to the interpretation of disparate impact in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and many anti-discrimination laws that followed.

January 7, 2021 - The Washington Post

Wisconsin

The Unfounded Fears of Affordable Housing Opposition

Neither evidence nor experience support the fearful visions expressed by opponents to affordable housing development, according to a recent feature article for the New York Times.

November 19, 2020 - The New York Times

Lafayette Square

Two Presidential Candidates, Two Approaches to Housing Policy

The Biden and Trump campaigns are from different worlds on housing policy, according to this analysis.

November 3, 2020 - CityLimits

2020 Campaign

What the Presidential Debate Revealed About the Suburbs

Trump has been repeatedly criticized for misunderstanding the suburbs, but former Vice President Jose Biden's take on the subject during the debate also missed the mark.

October 1, 2020 - Bloomberg CityLab

HUD

HUD Rule Change Allows Landlords to Use Screening Services Despite Discrimination Concerns

A revised U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rule makes it more difficult to submit claims of housing discrimination when a landlord's decisions is influenced by a third-party tenant screening service.

October 1, 2020 - The Markup

Ben Carson

The Hypocrisies and Troubles of Local Control

President Trump has opinions about the sanctity of local control that don't agree with his other opinions about local control. This is a cautionary tale.

September 16, 2020 - James Brasuell

Washington, D.C.

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.

August 12, 2020 - Jonathan Zasloff

HUD

The Policy That Will Replace the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule

The Trump administration didn't just dismantle an Obama-era fair housing rule—it replaced it with a new policy of its own called Preserving Community and Neighborhood Choice.

August 6, 2020 - Politico

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.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.