A federal initiative designed to overcome housing segregation – but attacked as creating a new level of bureaucracy when it comes to compiling information – has now been officially discarded.
A part of the nearly 60-year-old Fair Housing Act, the provision Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing was advanced by presidents Barack Obama and Joseph Biden. It has required any city or town receiving federal funding for housing construction to submit reports on local barriers to fair housing.
Implementation of AFFH included an analysis of impediments to achieving fair housing, as well as a 92-question grading tool.
The AFFH regulation has been generally criticized by local and state officials, with former Housing and Human Development Secretary Ben Carson charging that its implementation was “unworkable and ultimately a waste of time for localities to comply with.”
Now new HUD Secretary Scott Turner has announced the discontinuation of the AFFH regulation, remarking: “Local and state governments understand the needs of their communities much better than bureaucrats in Washington, DC. Terminating this rule restores trust in local communities and property owners, while protecting America’s suburbs and neighborhood integrity.”
“This action,” Turner added, “also returns decisions on zoning, home building, transportation, and more to local leaders.”
The former director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during the first Trump administration, Turner maintained that the original Fair Housing Act can adequately address housing discrimination challenges, “without onerous compliance requirements.”
March 4, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of US Housing and Urban Development
