Archinect - News

President Biden takes executive steps to undo discriminatory housing policies

2021-01-28T14:15:00-05:00

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Jan. 27 directing his administration to end policies that enable discrimination in housing and lending, and acknowledging the federal government’s role in erecting systemic barriers to fair housing.

According to Kriston Capps, writing for Bloomberg CityLab, "Biden’s executive order tasked the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to review two key rules implemented under the Trump administration. One of those rules governs how cities assess and enforce efforts to reduce segregation, a Civil Rights-era mandate that Trump repeatedly mischaracterized as an attempt to 'abolish the suburbs.' The other rule polices discrimination in rental housing and mortgage lending, standards that were relaxed under former Housing Secretary Ben Carson."

AIA condemns changes to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule

2020-07-29T19:36:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has issued a statement condemning recently announced changes to the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) provision of the 1968 Fair Housing Act by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Last week, HUD Secretary Ben Carson announced changes to the landmark Obama-era directive that effectively remove requirements for municipalities to analyze and ultimately reverse patterns of segregation within their neighborhoods.

Previously on Archinect: "Trump administration terminates Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule." View of the HUD headquarters in Washington, D.C.Image courtesy of Wikimedia user dbking

The change has been in the works since 2018 and news of its final implementation was met with strong resistance from housing activists.

In a statement condemning the changes, AIA EVP/Chief Executive Officer Robert Ivy, FAIA writes, "AIA strongly opposes the Administration’s dismantling of this critical r...

HUD continues to whittle away at the Fair Housing Act

2020-01-21T16:24:00-05:00

The Fair Housing Act [...] prohibits not only intentional segregation, but also policies and practices whose effect is to discriminate for no defensible reason, even if there is no evidence of a racial motive. Lawyers describe such actions as having a “disparate impact” on minorities. Now, however, the Trump administration is about to put into effect procedures to make it virtually impossible to prove disparate impact, no matter how egregious a discriminatory policy or practice may be.

Richard Rothstein, author of the influential book The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, presents an opinion piece in The New York Times highlighting the latest multi-pronged efforts on the part of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to dismantle the effectiveness and legal significance of the Fair Housing Act under the administration of President Donald Trump.

The latest efforts aim to make filing lawsuits arguing that policies and practices generate acts of de-facto racial segregation more difficult and onerous.

Federal government takes another step away from "affirmatively furthering fair housing"

2020-01-13T14:14:00-05:00

The history of housing discrimination in this country is in significant part a history of deliberate government policy, not market forces or individual choice. Ghettos such as those in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Baltimore, in fact, reflect federal policies of the mid-20th century that made segregation a condition for federal support of various kinds. That was social engineering of the most shameful sort.

The Washington Post editorial board sounds off on a recent plan advanced by United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson that seeks to further weaken Obama-era "affirmatively furthering fair housing" regulations.

According to the editorial, the wording of the 2015 ruling has been changed by Carson to shift its focus from advancing "meaningful actions" to "replac[e] segregated living patterns with truly integrated and balanced living patterns," according to The Washington Post, with a new focus on "advancing fair housing choice within the program participant’s control or influence."

The change is one of many recent retreats on the part of the current presidential administration aimed at reversing progressive housing reforms enacted before 2016.

Fair Housing Act ruling now vulnerable with Justice Kennedy’s retirement

2018-06-28T15:49:00-04:00

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the most important decision on fair housing in a generation. He’ll almost certainly get to see it overturned in his lifetime. When Kennedy announced his long-rumored retirement on Wednesday, he shined a spotlight on the tenuous political balance of the U.S. Supreme Court. Famously a swing vote, Kennedy sided with the court’s four liberal justices on defining decisions on reproductive rights, same-sex marriage, the death penalty, and other hot-button social issues.

The "disparate impact" ruling of the Fair Housing Act is now being reconsidered by HUD. This could lead to the department repealing altogether, despite the fact that the Supreme Court already affirmed its constitutionality. Justice Kennedy's legacy of further integrating society is vulnerable to be overruled under Trump.

Radical Candor; Archinect Sessions ep. 120

2018-04-12T18:09:00-04:00

This week Ken, Donna and I talk about some topics in recent architecture news, along with a little discussion about dealing with criticism.

Listen to episode 120 of Archinect Sessions, “Radical Candor”.

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Download: this episode

Shownotes:

Commemorating 50 Years of the Fair Housing Act When We Still Have a Long Way to Go
Architecture's Page Six moment: Brad Pitt hangs out with American-Israeli architect and MIT professor Neri Oxman
Wire mesh artist Edoardo Tresoldi to present large-scale installation at Coachella Festival (stayed tuned for an update on Edoardo's Coachella installation to be published here on Archinect tomorrow, Friday April 13)
Belgian Architect Aude-Line Dulière ...

HUD announces delay of AFFH, an Obama-era rule combating housing segregation

2018-01-08T14:24:00-05:00

Last week, HUD published a notice in the Federal Register announcing its intentions to suspend enforcement of the rule until 2020, the New York Times reports. The notice “tells cities already at work on the detailed plans required by the rule that they no longer need to submit them, and the department says it will stop reviewing plans that have already been filed,” according to the paper.

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, under the Obama administration, issued legislation intended to bolster the enforcement of the Fair Housing Act, a decades-old law designed to combat segregation across the country. The new, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, required cities and towns that receive federal funding to examine their local housing patterns for racial bias and to design a plan to address any measurable bias.

However, HUD announced last week, issuing a notice, that it is will be suspending enforcement of the AFFH, now giving cities until 2020 to submit their evaluations. The notice also states that the department will stop reviewing plans that have already been filed by cities.

While the decision does not necessarily repeal the Obama-era legislation, fair housing experts believe the suspension effectively guts the ruling and significantly waters down the government's assessment tools for fair housing by delaying enforcement. Communiti...