The Future of Fair Housing
- Table of Contents
- About the Commission
- Acknowledgements
- Executive Summary
- Introduction
- I. Housing Discrimination and Segregation Continue
- II. Fair Housing Enforcement at HUD is Failing
- III. Fair Housing Enforcement at the Justice Department is Weak
- IV. The Need for Strong Fair Housing Programs
- V. Fair Housing and the Foreclosure Crisis
- VI. Federal Housing Programs
- VII. Fair Housing Obligations of Federal Grantees
- VIII. Regionalism and Fair Housing Enforcement
- IX. The President's Fair Housing Council
- X. Fair Housing Education: A Missing Piece
- XI. The Necessity of Fair Housing Research
- XII. Conclusion
Appendices
- Appendix A: Emerging Fair Housing Issues
- Appendix B: International Disapproval of U.S. Fair Housing Policy
- Appendix C:
- Appendix D: Commission Witnesses and Staff
The President's Fair Housing Council
All of the federal agencies with responsibility over housing and urban development activities are obligated not only to promote fair housing, but to "cooperate with the Secretary [of HUD] to further such purposes." (42 U.S.C. § 3608) This requirement has generally been honored in the breach.[276]
Executive Order 12892 (1994) took this requirement of cooperation one step further, by establishing the "President's Fair Housing Council," which is required to "review the design and delivery of Federal programs and activities to ensure that they support a coordinated strategy to affirmatively further fair housing." The Fair Housing Council, which to our knowledge has only met once, goes beyond the housing-related agencies delineated in the Fair Housing Act to include virtually every other cabinet agency whose work may directly or indirectly affect housing.[277]
The Commission strongly supports the concept of the President’s Fair Housing Council, and recommends that it be given a stronger mandate in the new administration and staffed and reconvened as soon as possible – either within HUD or as part of the proposed White House Office of Urban Policy.
The multi-disciplinary approach of Executive Order 12892 recognizes that access to new housing opportunities may be constrained by other government policies and systems that have adapted to entrenched patterns of metropolitan segregation. For example, transportation systems designed in the 1970s to shuttle suburban workers into the central city may need to be retooled to support new commuting and residential patterns; distribution of community health facilities and administration of government-assisted health insurance may need to be adapted to support residential mobility; federal education grants may need to consider fair housing plans and voluntary school integration efforts; and the economic shifts associated with military base realignment should be implemented with regional fair housing planning in mind. The Council, in essence, encourages a federal fair housing review for major programs in all federal agencies, so that these programs are consciously aligned to support, not undermine, fair housing goals.
In particular, interagency fair housing coordination between HUD and the Department of Treasury needs to be strengthened and formalized.
Next Section: Revive the President’s Fair Housing Council
Footnotes
[276] Such cooperative arrangements have been underutilized but have the potential to enhance fair housing enforcement. For example, in 2000, the Department of Treasury, HUD, and the Department of Justice adopted a "Memorandum of Understanding" to require referrals by DOJ and HUD of discrimination complaints involving tax credit properties to the IRS for notification of owners and appropriate regulatory action.
[277] The Council "shall be chaired by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and shall consist of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Transportation, the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Interior, the Chair of the Federal Reserve, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and such other officials of executive departments and agencies as the President may, from time to time, designate." Exec. Order No. 12,892, 59 Fed. Reg. 2939 (Jan. 20, 1994)
