Tag: HUD

How to Violate a Federal Civil Rights Law and Get Away With It

by justin

I’ve written before about the absurdities of “government speak” before, but a new memo from HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity takes things to a whole new level.

Since its passage in 1968, the Federal Fair Housing Act has prohibited landlords from making discriminatory statements in housing advertisements. (Note: It also applies liability to everyone involved in the process of publishing the ad, but that’s another post for another time.) Just as classified ads have moved from the printed newspaper to the online classified website, so too have landlords’ discriminatory statements. This prohibition is unique in federal law, one of the only limitations on speech rooted in civil rights’ protections.

And HUD has now published clear instructions on how to violate it and avoid prosecution.

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new post: "Missing Priorities…"

by justin

A new post up at Rooflines.org on the missing priorities of the new HUD/DOT Sustainable Comunities Initiative:

At a US House of Representatives hearing last week on “Livable Communities, Transit Oriented Development, and Incorporating Green Building Practices into Federal Housing and Transportation,” HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced an new partnership. A joint task force, the “Sustainable Communities Initiative,” will address the intersection of transportation and housing affordability.

While any genuine effort to address housing affordability is welcome, this new HUD/DOT task force is particularly exciting because it reflects a new understanding of the complex issues that confront metropolitan regions and the sometimes surprising ways they intersect. Encouraging smarter planning, expanding the definition of affordability, and researching the livability of communities work in tandem to increase the use of public transportation, decrease our carbon footprint, reduce urban sprawl, enable the smarter use of regional resources, and improve affordable housing options for families. In short, this is one of those rare initiatives that seem to naturally align a multitude of interests.

Read the full post…

new post: "It's a Dirty Job…"

by justin

From Rooflines.org:

For the first 38 minutes, it almost sounded like the Senators pitied him.

The Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs spent nearly 40 minutes of the two-hour confirmation hearing warning President-elect Obama’s HUD secretary nominee Shaun Donovan that he would be taking over a neglected, under-funded agency rife with problems that has been relegated to the second tier of the federal bureaucracy and is facing a housing crisis of unknown proportions. Republicans and democrats alike praised Donovan for his “willingness” to take on this challenge and at times seemed genuinely surprised that someone of his experience and expertise would take such a challenging job. As many of the Senators noted, barring some startling revelation his confirmation is virtually assured.

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new post: "Reading the Tea Leaves: How Obama's HUD Transition Team Might Reshape HUD"

by justin

From Rooflines.org, where I am a guest blogger:

Through Change.gov, the public is being offered a first-ever opportunity to peek inside and offer opinion on nearly the entire transition process. A large team of academics, former bureacrats, and leading advocates have been appointed by President-Elect Obama to vet possible cabinet-level officials and conduct a thorough review of every federal bureaucracy they might lead.

Nine of these folks have been tasked with a review of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The HUD review leads are Xavier de Souza Briggs of MIT, Roberta Achtenberg, and Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institute ; team members include Ingrid Ellen of NYU, Nicholas Retsinas of Harvard’s Joint Center on Housing Studies, Henry Fernandez of the Center for American Progress, Saul Ramirez, Jr. of NAHRO, Kenneth Zimmerman of Lowenstein Sander, and Robert Weissbourd of RW Ventures.

Read the full post.