Letter - People Power United sends a letter to President Biden to release HUD’s final “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) rule immediately

🗽A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.

People Power United joined other local, state, and national groups to send a letter to to President Biden to release HUD’s final “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) rule immediately. Shout out to The National Housing Law Project for leading these efforts.

Here is the letter sent on behalf of our People Power United membership:

April 12, 2024

The Honorable Joseph R. Biden

President of the United States

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Biden:

We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge you to release the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) final “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) rule immediately. In the first week of your administration, you announced your commitment to a “comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all” and to “secure equal access to housing opportunity for all.” As you yourself have recognized, the AFFH rule is a vital tool in ensuring that there are equitable and affordable housing opportunities and stronger, more viable neighborhoods for low-income residents and communities of color across the country. In doing so, it can strengthen the American economy as a whole. We implore the White House to follow through on its commitments and release the final AFFH rule as soon as possible so that more communities can have affordable and accessible housing options that offer access to fresh air, clean water, good public transportation, quality care and schools, living wage jobs, quality healthcare, healthy foods, and affordable credit.

Unfortunately, where you live often determines your outcomes in life. For centuries, federal, state, and local governments enacted policies and funneled investments in a way that helped and supported some in our society while denying opportunities to and harming others, especially people of color, people with disabilities, and women. These unfair policies created unjust structures that still impact millions of people, resulting in the litany of housing challenges America faces today, from skyrocketing rents to increased evictions and homelessness to barriers that prevent the dream of homeownership from becoming a reality.

Supporting equitable housing principles and expanding fair, and affordable and accessible housing opportunities can boost our economy in a way that benefits all communities and servesserve as a critical tool to address the nation's housing crisis. Providing affordable and accessible housing in all communities, including well-resourced neighborhoods, can be a powerful mechanism for increasing upward economic mobility for low-income communities and breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty. Research has shown that adults living in neighborhoods with lower poverty and more-educated neighbors experienced better outcomes in employment, income, and physical health, and, with regard to the impact for children, both boys and girls living in these neighborhoods experienced better educational outcomes. Research shows that the shortage of affordable housing costs the American economy about $2 trillion a year in lower wages and productivity. Moreover, closing the wage, education, housing, and credit gaps between Black and white people alone would add $5 trillion of additional Gross Domestic Product to the U.S. economy over a five-year period.

The Fair Housing Act’s AFFH mandate is one of our strongest tools to address today’s housing challenges. This mandate requires every entity receiving federal funding for housing and community development to use those funds and operate their programs in a manner that affirmatively furthers fair housing opportunities. When used appropriately, the AFFH mandate can reduce racial and gender wealth and homeownership gaps; increase the supply of quality accessible and affordable housing; improve educational, health, environmental, and other outcomes; increase economic opportunities; and benefit thousands of communities and millions of people. In doing so, it can boost the American economy overall. Further, failure to release the rule can undermine the Biden-Harris Administration’s goals of ensuring recent federal infrastructure funding initiatives fairly reach all communities and threatens to exacerbate existing racial wealth gaps as jurisdictions. and NGOs will lack the guidance needed in administering infrastructure funds in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and CHIPS and Science Act.

In January 2023, HUD released a Notice of Proposed Rulem Making outlining the proposed process HUD grant recipients would undertake to fulfill their obligation to AFFH pursuant to the FHA. The proposed rule is a significant improvement over the current AFFH process, ensuring that communities have a voice in how AFFH plans are developed; helping communities analyze barriers to housing choice and establish their own local goals and priorities; and improving coordinated public-private investment in areas of highly concentrated poverty, transforming these neighborhoods into communities of opportunity. Ultimately, 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.

As you reflected on the 55th Anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, “A fair housing market is critical to the fulfillment of the American dream.” Our response is that a fair housing market cannot be realized without a strong AFFH rule. By investing in interventions that ensure that everyone can access fair, and affordable and accessible housing in thriving neighborhoods, we can create communities of opportunity. We urge the White House to immediately release the final proposed AFFH rule, so that more Americans can have their chance at the American Dream.

Sincerely,

Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund

The Legal Aid Society

National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD)

National Housing Law Project

National Low Income Housing Coalition

The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence

PolicyLink

Poverty and Race Research Action Council

Prosperity Now

Housing Rights Center

Disability Rights Florida

Center for Elder Law & Justice

The Children’s Partnership (California)

Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County

Regional Housing Legal Services (Pennsylvania)

Shriver Center on Poverty Law

Public Justice Center

William E. Morris Institute for Justice (Arizona)

Project Sentinel (California)

Sonoma Valley Collaborative (California)

The Kelsey

Massachusetts Law Reform Institute

National PLAN Alliance

Michigan Poverty Law Program

New Disabled South

SAGE

Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund

National Community Stabilization Trust (NCST)

National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients)

Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)

National Women’s Law Center

Greater Napa Valley Fair Housing Center (CA)

People Power United

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People Power United champions progressive values and power to the people. We are a group of people who believe in the possibility of change and work to make it happen. Whether it's supporting a candidate, fighting to pass legislation, or working to change our culture, our members are committed to an inclusive and progressive future.