HUD intends to submit a
new rule proposal in April targeting massive desegregation of each of the
nation’s more than 74,000 census tracts.
The plan, modeled on HUD’s
Westchester County, NY low income housing mandate, (search
www.cdpublications.com/HALfor previous
stories on the
Westchester ruling) will require that each census tract contain a similar percentage
of minority families that now live in concentrated areas of a local/regional government’s
jurisdiction. HUD determined that the county’s minority population is 10%, mostly
concentrated in White Plains and Yonkers.
While Westchester’s
minority populations are minuscule, making it easier to apply sanctions on a
percentage basis, it remains unclear how HUD would determine percentages to be applied
to census tracts when minority populations in urban settings surpass the
surrounding white populations by a large margin, such as Detroit.
Under the proposal, any
unit of local government that receives, and has received, any federal subsidy
that specifies the application of housing provisions, such as Community
Development Block Grants, must prove that it followed HUD’s requirements to
provide housing for poor minority families. Failure to provide such proof would
subject municipalities to the loss of subsidies or require equivalent housing
for the minority poor in each of their census tracts -- each tract contains
about 4,000 residents.
Elections Delayed
Agenda Release
HUD has kept its new
plan under wraps for more than a year by delaying release of its semiannual Unified
Agenda of Regulatory & Deregulatory Actions. Sources tell HAL the
Obama
administration
deliberately withheld the Spring 2012 Unified Agenda (UA) because of the political
volatility of some of the proposals. OMB delayed release of the Fall 2012 UA
until after the November elections for the same reason. The UA was finally
released late Dec. 21
after government
operations were shut down for the Christmas holiday, keeping the issues well
under the political radar. The new Fair Housing Act change is the only rule
proposal listed for HUD. The department
says the rule is
intended to “overcome the legacy of segregation” by applying the law "proactively."
"HUD is committed
to helping... the middle class and those aspiring to join the middle class, through
access, opportunity and fairness, and HUD can do this by strengthening the
statutory mandate to affirmatively further fair housing," the UA document
says. Calling it a new approach, HUD will apply the lessons learned from its Westchester
County experience. The affluent New York City suburb was taken to task in 2009 for
failure to sufficiently apply its CDBG grants to provide housing for the poor.
A New York metro fair housing organization sued Westchester in 2006 under the
1863 Federal False Claims Act, know as the Lincoln Law, which allows private
parties to recover triple damages from anyone who
fraudulently takes federal money.
A federal judge found
the county had failed to meet the preconditions of $52 million in CDBG awards
by failing to analyze impediments to fair housing based on race and it misrepresented
its efforts to desegregate overwhelmingly white communities when it applied for
the revenue sharing.
Officials Mum On
Plans
The county settled with
HUD rather than risk losing more than $85 million in future CDBG grants,
agreeing to pay $51.6 million to build or buy 750 houses in 31 select
communities in seven years and provide them to poor black and Hispanic families
on a percentage basis. And the county was required
to pay the Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York $10.5 million for
filing the lawsuit.
The settlement calls for
630 of the homes to be reserved in areas where blacks constitute 3% or less of
the population and Hispanic make up less than 7%. The remaining homes meet different
criteria for ethnic concentration and costs. The county must recruit minority
tenants for the new homes from
the surrounding metro area. Tenants would be provided Section 8 housing
vouchers to pay rental costs.
HUD officials decline to
discuss the UA because the proposal for new rules has not been officially
issued. But HUD sources tell HAL the department seized the Westchester
settlement as its pilot for a plan to ensure that all census tracts in the
nation are properly desegregated. HUD has been researching more than 1,000
municipalities nationwide for discrepancies in their federal grant agreements.
Source: CD Publications, 1/2/13,
Housing Affairs Letter (HAL)
Reprinted from http://www.cdpublications.com/hal/
http://www.cdpublications.com/docs/7763,
http://www.cdpublications.com/docs/7764, and
http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaMain
Comments:
Slavery by Grant Award is the tactic of the day. HUD will bully elected officials with threats
of “no more grants” unless they build enough subsidized housing units. These are federal funds created via printing
press and will result in serious inflation and government bankruptcy. This will lower property values in adjoining
areas. If we can get the federal
government to stop spending their extra $ Trillion a year, this will stop.
“In
2013, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address will occur on the
same day, February 2nd. This is an ironic juxtaposition of events. One involves
a meaningless ritual in which we look to an insignificant creature of little
intelligence for prognostication. The
other involves a groundhog.”
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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