Breitbart – Trump Administration Shredding Obama Era Housing Regulations

Breitbart – Trump Administration Shredding Obama Era Housing Regulations in Bid to Give Americans Better Choices

The Trump administration’s revision of cumbersome Obama-era public housing regulations that focused on diversity rather than affordability and availability is being hailed by black leaders as a move that will help more Americans.

Penny Starr
August 14, 2018

“Public housing isn’t supposed to be permanent housing,” said Project 21 Co-Chairman Council Nedd II, who is also an Anglican bishop.

“Government should prioritize availability and affordability over location especially when using taxpayer money,” Nedd said. “The goal must be to provide a safety net and a hand-up, not create a perverse diversity that values holding people together over allowing them all to rise.”

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is now accepting public comments on amendments to the “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) rule that was put in place in 2015 to allegedly advance the impact of the 1968 Fair Housing Act.

“The proposed amendments, rather than forcing local governments to prove that their housing policies do not segregate, allow for more local control with an aim of increasing housing choice through increased supply,” Project 21’s statement said.

“HUD believes very deeply in the purposes of the Fair Housing Act and that states, local governments, and public housing authorities further fair housing choice,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said in a press release announcing the public comment period. “HUD’s 2015 rule often dictated unworkable requirements and actually impeded the development and rehabilitation of affordable housing.”

“It’s ironic that the current AFFH rule, which was designed to expand affordable housing choices, is actually suffocating investment in some of our most distressed neighborhoods that need our investment the most,” Carson said. “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.”

“Today we begin the formal process of examining how we can get this regulation right by first listening and learning from those who must put these rules to work and live with its impact,” Carson said.

The HUD announcement states:

As HUD begins the process of amending the existing AFFH regulations, it is soliciting public comment on changes that will: (1) minimize regulatory burden while more effectively aiding program participants to meet their statutory obligations, (2) create a process focused primarily on accomplishing positive results, rather than on analysis, (3) provide for greater local control and innovation, (4) seek to encourage actions that increase housing choice, including through greater housing supply, and (5) more efficiently utilize HUD resources.

“Common-sense housing reform is long overdue,” Project 21 Co-Chairman Horace Cooper, a former professor of constitutional law and senior counsel to congressional leadership, said. “Public housing assistance should be primarily about assisting people in the most timely and cost-effective method.”

“Ending social engineering experiments and so-called diversity goals will allow HUD to refocus its efforts on housing and free up resources to aid more Americans,” Cooper said.

Earlier this year, Cooper, Nedd and other members of Project 21 met with Carson and other high-level HUD staff to discuss welfare reform and Project 21’s “Blueprint for a Better Deal for Black America,” a 57-point plan for removing barriers blocking blacks from empowerment and ensuring they have a chance to attain the American Dream.

Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives for over 25 years, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research.