Future of Fair Housing: Strengthen Compliance

Home

About NFHA

Know Your Rights

Find Local Help

Public Policy

Fair Housing Resources

Fair Lending Training

Public Policy header

The Future of Fair Housing - Report of the National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity

Forty years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, the National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity was convened to travel across the country to collect information and hear testimony about the nature and extent of illegal housing discrimination, its connection with government policy and practice, and its effect on our communities. The Commission held hearings in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Boston, and Atlanta.

On December 9, 2008, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, the Commission reported on its findings.

JOIN US
Join the fight to end housing discrimination—become a member of the National Fair Housing Alliance.

Strengthen Fair Housing Compliance
by Federal Grantees

HUD must reform its current structure by strengthening its leadership of the affirmatively furthering obligation. A regulatory structure must provide guidance and direction to ensure that programs that receive federal funds advance fair housing.

The affirmatively furthering requirement must be monitored aggressively, through HUD’s own program monitoring function. Analyses of Impediments must be periodically updated, submitted, and reviewed by a single entity with the authority to return the plans for revision, conduct its own analysis of sitting decisions and all proposed actions, and assess performance under the plans. A reformed structure should be based on existing guidance in HUD’s Fair Housing Planning Guide,^[250] but HUD should also provide a structure that includes benchmarks and performance standards and sanctions for failing to comply with the requirements.^[251]

HUD must provide training and technical assistance to support the reformed affirmatively furthering initiative, including training and technical assistance to support groups that will work locally and regionally in communities to advance fair housing principles.

In addition to a more aggressive monitoring and enforcement effort at HUD, failure to affirmatively further fair housing should become directly actionable through administrative complaints filed by individuals and organizations with the new fair housing enforcement structure.

The CDBG program should provide structural and funding support for community-based initiatives to affirmatively further fair housing at the local and regional levels. Fair housing and affirmatively furthering activities should be funded directly as an eligible activity under the CDBG program by obligating at least five percent be of the CDBG funding to entitlement communities and state agencies to support activities by fair housing groups directly related to affirmatively furthering fair housing.

Next Section: Regionalism and Fair Housing Enforcement

Footnotes

[250] U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, Fair Housing Planning Guide, Vol. 1 available at http://www.hud.gov/offices/fheo/images/fhpg.pdf

[251] Written testimony of Harry Carey (Atlanta).

COMMISSION PARTNERS

The Future of Fair Housing

Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, NFHA has partnered with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund to create a national, bipartian fair housing commission to investigate the alarming state of U.S. housing in the wake of the subprime housing debacle.

On December 9, 2008, the commission released its findings and recommendations in this comprehensive report.

Entire report in PDF format

Executive summary in PDF format

I. Housing Discrimination and Segregation Continue

— How We Got Here: The Historical Roots of Housing Segregation

— Despite the Promise of the Fair Housing Act, the Rate of Housing Discrimination Remains High

II. Fair Housing Enforcement at HUD is Failing

— Create a New, Independent Fair Housing Enforcement Agency

III. Fair Housing Enforcement at the Justice Department is Weak

— Strengthen DOJ’s Role in Fair Housing and Fair Lending Enforcement

IV. The Need for Strong Fair Housing Programs

— Increase Funding for the FHIP program

— Reform FHIP Management

— Improve Coordination and Oversight of the Fair Housing Assistance Program

V. Fair Housing and the Foreclosure Crisis

— Incorporate Fair Housing Principles into Foreclosure Relief Implementation

VI. Federal Housing Programs

— Ensure Compliance with the "Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing" Obligation in Federal Housing Programs

VII. Fair Housing Obligations of Federal Grantees

— Strengthen Fair Housing Compliance by Federal Grantees

VIII. Regionalism and Fair Housing Enforcement

— Adopt a Regional Approach to Fair Housing

IX. The President's Fair Housing Council

— Revive the President’s Fair Housing Council

X. Fair Housing Education: A Missing Piece

— Strengthen Fair Housing Education

XI. The Necessity of Fair Housing Research

— Enhance Fair Housing Research at HUD

XII. Conclusion

Appendices

Appendix A: Emerging Fair Housing Issues

Appendix B: International Disapproval of U.S. Fair Housing Policy

Appendix C: Commissioner Correspondence on Foreclosure Relief Implementation

— Letter to Congressional Leaders

— Letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson

Appendix D: Commission Witnesses and Staff

Achieving the Dream for Everyone

The National Fair Housing Alliance stepped up the fight to insure everyone has a chance at achieving the American Dream – owning a home in a safe welcoming neighborhood – during our 20^th annual conference. More than 300 members gathered at our conference in Washington to send a strong message about the importance of fair lending in the home mortgage industry – it’s not only the right thing to do, but when unfairness wins everybody else loses.

Conference panels discussed the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and reviewed fair housing enforcement policies by the United States Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. We examined how predatory subprime lenders marketed shoddy financial products to communities of color triggering the current housing meltdown which has imperiled our entire economy.

The fallout could mean a tightening of credit for home buyers with some decision makers proposing high down payments for a home further curtailing home ownership for millions in the middle class. “Generations of Americans have tapped their home equity to send their children to college to provide for a brighter tomorrow,” said Shanna Smith, president and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance. “We can’t allow the future to dim for communities of color.”

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Tulane Professor Melissa V. Harris-Perry and john a. powell of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity were among our conference speakers.

NFHA also found time during our conference to recognize our success stories. We presented the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) with the prestigious Chairman’s Award for its contribution to the movement. Our allies in New Orleans were cited for the on-going litigation with St. Bernard Parish, their development of the Road Home Program, a recent forum on fair housing and food justice and for publishing a children’s book, “The Fair Housing Five & the Haunted House.”

For photos of conference highlights please click here.

Home - About NFHA - Know Your Rights - Find Local Help - Public Policy - Fair Housing Resources - Fair Lending Training - Login

1101 Vermont Ave NW, Suite 710 Washington DC 20005 - T: (202) 898 1661 - F : (202) 371 9744 - TTY: (202) 898-1670 - nfha@nationalfairhousing.org