Page 8 The Skanner April 20, 2016
FAIR HOUSING
48 Years After the Fair Housing Act, We Still Have Work to Do
I
n early September, public
policy experts, housing ad-
vocates, civil rights leaders,
academicians and others
came together for three days
to listen, learn and craft a way
forward to advance housing
rights and opportunities. Con-
vened by HUD’s Office of Fair
Housing and Equal Opportu-
nity, the conference held Sep-
tember 1-3 celebrated major
milestones in the fight for fair
housing, recalled noteworthy
achievements and itemized all
that still remains to be accom-
plished.
As co-sponsor of the 1968
Fair Housing Act (FHA), Wal-
ter Mondale, former vice pres-
ident and Minnesota Senator,
termed the Act’s passage as
“one of the great miracles in
modern history.” His open-
ing keynote address also spoke
to contemporary challenges to
dismantle residential segre-
gation and governmental pol-
icies that deny equal housing.
“The Fair Housing Act has
unfinished business,” noted
Mondale. “When high-in-
come Black families cannot
qualify for applied loans and
are steered away from White
suburbs, the goals of the Fair
Housing Act are not fulfilled.”
“When the federal and state
governments will pay to build
new suburban highways,
Charlene
Crowell
NNPA
Columnist
streets, sewers, school and
parks but then allow these
communities to exclude af-
fordable housing, the goals of
the Fair Housing Act are not
fulfilled,” continued Mondale.
“When we build most new sub-
sidized housing in poor Black
and Latino neighborhoods, the
goals of the Fair Housing Act
“
providers are complying with
federal fair housing laws, has
resulted in more than $13 mil-
lion in damages and civil pen-
alties awarded since 1991.
“One investigation found that
a nationwide mortgage lend-
er has systematically charged
higher interest rates to His-
panic and African American
borrowers,” noted Lynch. “An-
other revealed that city offi-
cials, law enforcement and a
local housing authority in Los
Angeles County had engaged
in a targeted campaign to dis-
courage African-Americans
from moving to and living
in the area by enforcing the
tain loan officers or certain
brokers who they know will
charge more.”
Later this month, new mort-
gage data will be released as
part of the annual Home Mort-
gage Disclosure Act report.
One of the few resources that
details mortgage lending by
race and ethnicity, the most
recent report — for 2013 —
showed low levels of lending
for borrowers of color. Fur-
ther, when mortgage loans
were approved for Black and
Latino consumers, the vast ma-
jority were backed by govern-
ment-insured programs from
FHA, VA or USDA — and very
One investigation found that a nationwide mortgage lend-
er has systematically charged higher interest rates to
Hispanic and African-American borrowers
are not fulfilled.”
Many of Mondale’s concerns
were echoed by other present-
ers. For example, according to
Attorney General Loretta
Lynch, in just the last three
years, Justice Department’s
Civil Rights Division filed
more than 100 lawsuits, includ-
ing 69 pattern or practices law-
suits, to combat housing and
lending discrimination. Hous-
ing testing, a key tool used to
determine whether housing
Housing Choice Voucher pro-
gram in a prejudicial manner.”
In another conference ses-
sion, Steven Rosenbaum, head
of housing and civil enforce-
ment at the Justice Depart-
ment’s civil rights division,
warned of more redlining
cases. “Based on what is on
my docket right now, stayed
tuned,”
said
Rosenbaum.
“There are still lenders who
seem to think it is OK to steer
minority borrowers to cer-
few from the private sector.
The private sector exclusion
means more hard-earned mon-
ey is taken out of the pockets
from borrowers of color as
government-backed mortgag-
es are more expensive.
In the aftermath of the U.S.
Supreme Court’s decision that
upheld the use of disparate
impact studies as a tool to fight
for fair housing and a new
HUD rule, Attorney General
Lynch offered the gathering
and HUD Justice’s full support.
“[I] am proud to support the
Department of Housing and
Urban Development’s new
rule on Affirmatively Fur-
thering Fair Housing (AFFH),
which is a crucial step toward
ending historic patterns of
segregation and removing dis-
parities based on race, color,
religion, sex, familiar status,
national origin and disability,”
said Lynch.
The new rule, announced
this past July, clarifies and sim-
plifies existing fair housing
obligations.
Also voicing support for
HUD’s new rule was Wade
Henderson, President and CEO
of the Leadership Conference
on Civil and Human Rights, a
coalition of more than 200 na-
tional organizations.
“We need HUD to continue
its AFFH enforcement efforts
. . . To send a strong signal to
jurisdictions that it’s serious
about compliance on this is-
sue,” said Henderson. “And
HUD needs all of us to engage
with local governments in the
coming few years to hold them
accountable, and to also push
to see that HUD itself has the
capacity it needs to do its job in
the right way.”
May we also find the will and
the way to continue the jour-
ney for justice.