Leading Civil Rights, Fair Housing, Affordable Housing and Public Health Advocates Urge Senators to Oppose Harmful Riders in H.R. 4366, The Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 20, 2023

Contact: Janelle Brevard | jbrevard@nationalfairhousing.org

Leading Civil Rights, Fair Housing, Affordable Housing and Public Health Advocates Urge Senators to Oppose Harmful Riders in H.R. 4366, The Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

Washington, D.C. — A broad and diverse group of leading civil rights, fair housing, affordable housing, and public health advocates issued the following statement opposing riders in H.R.4366, the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024, that would prevent the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from complying with its legal requirement to affirmatively further fair housing:

“We urge Senators to oppose any amendments that would prohibit funding for implementation of HUD’s proposed ‘Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing’ (AFFH) rule.

Implementation of the AFFH rule will help ensure that HUD grantees have the guidance, data, and tools necessary to empower communities to shape their own cost-effective strategies to affirmatively further fair housing – including future investments in housing, transportation, infrastructure, and economic development that can make any community thrive. The AFFH process will help communities analyze barriers to housing choice and establish their own local plans to address the fair housing impediments identified in their community and connect people to opportunity. The proposed AFFH rule will also improve coordinated public and private investment in areas of highly concentrated poverty, transforming these neighborhoods into communities of opportunity. Overall, the proposed AFFH rule will ensure that communities leverage existing federal investments to increase access to opportunity and achieve healthy communities for all. Furthermore, HUD grantees have long requested this guidance, data, and tools. 

Our nation faces a litany of housing challenges, from skyrocketing rents to increased evictions and homelessness to interest rates that prevent the dream of homeownership from becoming a reality. People of color, people with disabilities, women, and individuals with other protected characteristics disproportionately confront these issues due to persistent residential segregation, discrimination, disinvestment, and other factors. These fair housing issues have resulted in significant disparities in life expectancy and illness between neighborhoods and among cities. 

When Congress passed the Fair Housing Act fifty-five years ago, it charged HUD and other federal agencies with the duty to affirmatively further fair housing. The AFFH mandate is one of our strongest tools to address today’s housing challenges. 

We urge Senators to vote ‘no’ on any amendments that would prevent HUD from implementing its proposed AFFH rule.”

This statement was issued jointly by the following organizations:

• National Fair Housing Alliance
• NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
• National Housing Law Project
• PolicyLink
• National Women’s Law Center
• The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
• Human Impact Partners
• National Low Income Housing Coalition
• American Public Health Association
• Build Healthy Places Network
• National Collaborative for Health Equity
• National Network of Public Health Institutes
• The Children’s Partnership
• Regional Asthma Management and Prevention
• Trust for America’s Health
• Prevention Institute
• Natural Resources Defense Council

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The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) is the country’s only national civil rights organization dedicated solely to eliminating all forms of housing and lending discrimination and ensuring equal opportunities for all people. As the trade association for over 170 fair housing and justice-centered organizations and individuals throughout the U.S. and its territories, NFHA works to dismantle longstanding barriers to equity and build diverse, inclusive, well-resourced communities.