Federal judge dismisses lawsuit
accusing HUD Secretary Ben Carson of dismantling Obama-era fair housing law, by Tracy Jan, 8/
A federal judge on Friday threw out a lawsuit against Housing
and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and his agency, dealing a blow to
advocates challenging how the department enforces fair housing laws.
Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell, of the U.S. District Court
for the District of Columbia, dismissed the case after finding that the
plaintiffs, three housing advocacy nonprofit groups, failed to prove they were
harmed by HUD’s move to effectively suspend an Obama-era rule requiring
communities to address housing discrimination.
Howell, an Obama appointee, disagreed with the plaintiffs’
allegations that Carson had dismantled the 2015 rule
in May when
he withdrew a computer assessment tool that allowed the agency to oversee
whether communities complied with the law.
“Many aspects of
the [Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing] Rule remain active,” Howell wrote
in her 77-page opinion. “HUD’s withdrawal of the tool does not ‘perceptibly
impair’ the plaintiffs’ abilities to carry out their missions.”
The 2015 rule,
developed over a six-year period, was designed to push communities to comply
with a little-enforced provision of the 1968 Fair Housing Act that compelled
local governments to use federal dollars to end residential segregation. The
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.
Local governments
were supposed to use the computer assessment tool to analyze housing patterns,
concentrated poverty and disparities in access to transportation, jobs and good
schools. They were to identify discriminatory barriers and actively fix them.
“It has only been for the last three years that communities were
equipped with the tools and guidance needed to meet their obligations under the
law,” said Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Howell said the
court does not have the jurisdiction to “micromanage agency choices on program
implementation” when the plaintiffs have not proved sufficient harm.
Housing advocates said Howell’s ruling allows HUD to revert to a
toothless enforcement system that has failed to ensure that communities receiving federal
housing dollars adhere to fair housing law. Several federal reports have
documented that the previous monitoring method — which amounts to little more than
communities self-certifying that they had taken actions to overcome impediments
to fair housing — actually perpetuated housing segregation.
“Without
effective enforcement, you get situations where municipalities and housing
authorities are continuing to engage in discrimination,” said Lisa Rice,
president and chief executive of the National Fair Housing Alliance, one of the
three plaintiffs.
The ruling, Rice said, means that communities will continue
receiving federal dollars without eliminating barriers to housing
discrimination. That means municipalities like Zanesville, Ohio, which denied water
services to communities of color, or those like Houston, where black and Latino
neighborhoods suffer inferior drainage services, could still receive federal
funds in the absence of individual lawsuits.
“There are very
real negative impacts here,” Rice said. “Their houses are infected with mold.
Their children are suffering from asthma.”
HUD on Saturday
released a statement to The Post, saying the agency remains “deeply committed
to the Fair Housing Act and will continue to live up to the spirit and the
letter of the law.”
“We are gratified
that the Court agreed with HUD on all points, including the agency’s approach
to amending the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Regulations,” the
statement said.
Carson has long
criticized federal efforts to desegregate American neighborhoods as “failed
socialist experiments” and previously dismissed Obama-era reforms as compelling
communities to look around for “anything that looks like discrimination.”
The agency on
Monday announced it plans to amend existing fair housing regulations. It is
seeking public input for new rules that federal officials say will minimize
regulatory burdens, allow for greater local control and innovation, place less
emphasis on analysis and increase housing choice by expanding housing supply.
HUD officials, in Monday’s notice, said the 2015 rule “proved
ineffective, highly prescriptive, and effectively discouraged the production
of affordable housing.”
The agency in
January had suspended the obligation of local governments to file plans on how
they would integrate neighborhoods.
In May, shortly after the lawsuit was filed, HUD withdrew the computer
assessment tool to be used for those plans because it was “confusing, difficult to
use, contained errors,” and “required an unsustainable level of technical
assistance.”
“HUD’s 2015 rule
often dictated unworkable requirements and actually impeded the development and
rehabilitation of affordable housing,” Carson said in a statement. “We do not
have to abandon communities in need. Instead we believe we can craft a new,
fairer rule that creates choices for quality housing across all communities.”
Sasha
Samberg-Champion, lead attorney on the lawsuit, said the agency’s formal
rulemaking notice on Monday is just another way to “dismantle the 2015 rule by
procedurally more defensible means.”
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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