Proposed Final Rule Walks Back Requirement to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing Efforts
Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul today joined a coalition of 19 attorneys general in sending a comment letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), opposing its interim final rule that walks back HUD’s duty to affirmatively further fair housing.
“HUD’s proposed rule change is a step backward,” Raoul said. “It runs counter to HUD’s guiding principles and legal requirements that it should actively seek to combat segregation and work for fair housing for all. I stand with my fellow attorneys general to oppose this harmful proposal.”
Under the Fair Housing Act (FHA), HUD is statutorily required to “affirmatively further fair housing,” known as the AFFH Mandate, which means that the agency and its program participants, including state and local governments, must proactively take meaningful action to overcome patterns of residential segregation, promote housing choice, eliminate disparities in opportunity, and foster inclusive communities free from discrimination. In 2021, HUD issued a rule requiring that all grantees undertake a robust fair housing planning process prior to receiving any federal funding. HUD’s new interim final rule walks back this requirement, replacing it with a weak AFFH certification requirement, and effectively relieves HUD of its enforcement obligations.
In their letter, Raoul and the attorneys general argue that the new interim final rule violates the charge of the FHA and the AFFH Mandate, as it does not require grantees to meaningfully evaluate whether their actions will reduce segregation and promote integration, nor does it require any specific fair housing planning processes. Instead, it undermines efforts to promote fair housing and ignores HUD’s statutory requirement to affirmatively further fair housing. According to the attorneys general, the proposed rule lacks any factual basis for its drastic policy change and practically depletes HUD’s oversight to identify and address barriers to fair housing.
Residential segregation remains pervasive in Illinois. Among metropolitan areas in the U.S. with over 10,000 Black residents, the metro areas of Decatur, Carbondale, Springfield, Rockford, Kankakee, Danville, Peoria and Chicago are all more racially segregated than the national median. Residential segregation leads inexorably to educational segregation. Among Black students in Illinois, 62% attend highly segregated schools, in which 90-100% of the students are African American. This makes Illinois the second most segregated state for Black students. HUD’s proposed lackluster AFFH rule will deprive the state and its localities of the framework and tools needed to combat this harmful segregation.
Joining Attorney General Raoul in submitting the comment letter were the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
