Leading Civil Rights, Consumer, and Housing Advocates Strongly Urge HUD to Withdraw Its Watered-Down Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Leading Civil Rights, Consumer, and Housing Advocates Strongly Urge HUD to Withdraw Its Watered-Down Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule
Washington, D.C. – Over 100 leading civil rights, consumer, and housing advocates have submitted a comment letter strongly urging the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to withdraw the 2025 Interim Final Rule, which significantly waters down the affirmatively furthering fair housing (AFFH) provision of the federal Fair Housing Act.
“Imagine a society in which every child and every person can live in a neighborhood with ample affordable and accessible housing, fresh air, clean water, good public transportation, living wage jobs, quality healthcare, healthy foods, and affordable credit. That is what affirmatively furthering fair housing means,” said Nikitra Bailey, Executive Vice President of the National Fair Housing Alliance® (NFHA™). “However, the Trump administration has backed away from the federal government’s duty to affirmatively further fair housing and taken away critical tools that states and localities needed and requested to address the nation’s fair and affordable housing crisis and advance the American Dream of having a safe, stable place to call home.”
HUD issued 2025 AFFH Interim Final Rule while the people of America are facing an unprecedented fair and affordable housing crisis. The 2024 NFHA Annual Fair Housing Trends Report recorded the largest-ever number of fair housing discrimination complaints, the majority of which are based on disability. Moreover, the number of households who spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent is at record highs, with Black and Latino renters being more likely than White renters to be cost-burdened. Both the racial homeownership gap and the racial wealth gap remain wide and persistent. Finally, neighborhoods of color that the federal government redlined continue to lack the opportunities available in majority-White neighborhoods.
“In a move that is grossly out of touch with the reality on the ground and voters’ desire for housing solutions, HUD’s 2025 AFFH Interim Final Rule guts the Fair Housing Act and abandons the people of America during this fair and affordable housing crisis,” said Ms. Bailey. “Our strength as a nation depends on ensuring that all communities are safe, healthy, and thriving. HUD could have chosen to lead during this time of crisis, but instead chose to ignore its statutory mandate and this opportunity to help localities develop healthy, thriving, and inclusive communities. NFHA and its allies call on HUD to immediately withdraw the 2025 AFFH Interim Final Rule and reinstate the 2021 AFFH Interim Final Rule.”
Click here to read the full comment from leading civil rights, consumer, and housing advocates.
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