This letter urges Senate and House Appropriations Committee leaders to remove language from appropriations bills that would prohibit the use of funds for implementation of HUD’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing program.
Communities that receive HUD funding have long-standing obligations to affirmatively further fair housing for people of color, people with disabilities, women, and other groups that have struggled to access opportunity and exercise housing choice. 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, more 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 goals and priorities to address the fair housing impediments identified in their community and connect people to opportunity. The proposed AFFH rule will also improve coordinated publicprivate 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, as required by the Fair Housing Act.