SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline) — California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced March 7 that he has issued a letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in which he opposed HUD’s suspension of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule.
The AFFH rule, which was promulgated in 2015, mandates that jurisdictions use national and local data to create development goals for well balanced and integrated living patterns. The rule was enacted to help jurisdictions determine if their policies helped reduce concentrations of poverty and housing and economic opportunities.
HUD announced Jan. 5 that it was suspending the rule immediately. The department did not seek public comment on the issue. Becerra alleges HUD failed to provide a rational justification for the suspension, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
“ZIP code should never determine destiny,” Becerra said in the letter. “It’s more than troubling that the Trump administration has directed the Department of Housing and Urban Development to reverse course and reject the AFFH rule. The AFFH rule represents a groundbreaking and long-overdue effort to ensure federal housing dollars reduce historic patterns of segregation and poverty that have harmed generations of people in marginalized communities.”