Fair-housing advocates planned to file a lawsuit early Tuesday against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and HUD Secretary Ben Carson for suspending an Obama-era rule requiring communities to examine and address barriers to racial integration. The 2015 rule required more than 1,200 communities receiving billions of federal housing dollars to draft plans to desegregate their communities — or risk losing federal funds. Housing advocates said the retreat would perpetuate housing segregation, given earlier assessments that the previous provisions were essentially toothless. “The Assessment of Fair Housing tool for local governments wasn’t working well,” the HUD statement said. Since the rule, housing advocates say, many communities have made great strides.

Source: Washington Post May 07, 2018 23:13 UTC