HUD in January announced a five-year delay to the implementation of the Obama administration’s 2015 “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” rule. Secretary Ben Carson publicly slammed the rule as “social engineering." | Win McNamee/Getty Images Civil rights groups sue HUD over fair housing rule

The National Fair Housing Alliance is suing the Department of Housing and Urban Development for suspending an Obama-era anti-discrimination rule.

The complaint alleges that HUD in January unlawfully halted a federal requirement that state and local governments crack down on segregated housing practices in order to receive HUD funding.


Under Secretary Ben Carson — who publicly slammed the Obama administration’s 2015 “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” rule as “social engineering” — HUD in January announced a five-year delay to the implementation of the rule.

“For decades, policies and practices of the federal government created and perpetuated segregated communities in this country. … Because this segregation was created through deliberate action, it will take equally deliberate action to overcome its harmful effects,” said Jorge Soto, director of public policy for NFHA. “That is what the AFFH mandate was designed to do.”

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The rule required jurisdictions to conduct more rigorous assessments of possible segregation as a condition of receiving HUD funds. Now that it’s effectively been suspended, grantees can use their pre-2015 processes, which were found lacking in a 2010 GAO report.

“By referring government entities to a system which it has acknowledged has failed to accomplish the goals of the Fair Housing Act, HUD has clearly signaled that it does not take the spirit of the Fair Housing Act or its own responsibilities to uphold it seriously,” Soto said in a conference call with reporters.

The groups Texas Appleseed and Texas Low Income Housing Information Service joined the NFHA in the suit, which alleges that HUD violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to provide advance notice or allow public comment before delaying the rule.

A HUD spokesman pointed to a statement the agency released in January, saying it delayed the rule because the new formulas used for determining housing discrimination weren’t working well.

