HUD Secretary defends the withdrawal of fair housing rule
The AFFH rule – originally adopted in 2015 by the Obama government and restored under President Joe Biden in 2021 – required local governments to analyze housing patterns for racial and economic differences and corrective plans to HUD.
But Turner said that the rule “HUD effectively turned into a National Zoning Board.” He called it “one of the biggest top-down intrusions on local decision-making ever undertaken by Washington.”
Turner has credited President Donald Trump to terminate the policy in 2020 during his first term, and said that he ended “a liberal search for social re -engineer neighborhoods at the expense of the American pre -urban dream.”
The secretary argued that the regulatory costs imposed by AFFH were excessive and counterproductive.
“To meet the requirements of the mandate, installed an nearly 100-request assessment instrument and perform complicated demographic analyzes of their residents and housing stock,” he wrote.
“Moreover, this data had to be analyzed with regard to not only the community itself, but in the larger region as a whole – with a mandate to tackle the mere existence of any form of imbalance, racial or otherwise, even without demonstrating any actual discrimination. It was not surprising to complete almost impossible.”
Turner mentioned Philadelphia as an example and noted that it submitted a report of a total of more than 800 pages, two -thirds of which were rejected by HUD for revision.
He also pointed to the case of Dubuque, Iowa, of which he said it was unfairly directed by Hud.
“The Obama administration accused Dubuque of discrimination because they only give priority to the needs of his own citizens above those of the population of Chicago, Illinois, many of whom came to this smaller city in Iowa for section 8 vouchers,” Turner wrote.
“Despite the fact that Dubuque was almost 200 miles away from Chicago and in a completely different state, Obama’s HUD set up it together with the Windy City and stated that the ‘fair housing’ had to promote in the new regional block that crossed the border between Iowailinois.”
Turner added that the move does not mean an end to fair enforcement of homes.
“Of course, housing discrimination remains illegal under federal legislation, and will continue to be illegal after AFFH has been withdrawn because the Fair Housing Act remains in place,” he said.
A coalition of more than 100 proponents of consumers, housing and civil rights previously submitted a letter to Turner against the interim -defined rule of HUD in 2025 that changes the scope of the AFFH rule.
“Imagine a society in which every child and every person in a neighborhood can live with sufficiently affordable and accessible housing, fresh air, clean water, good public transport, living wages, quality healthcare, healthy food and affordable credit. That means some affirmative honest housing,” said Nikitra Bailey Vice -President van de Executive president of the president of the pres team president -President of the Executive Vice President of the Executive Vice National Fair Housing Alliance.
