NFHA et al v. Carson: Just a few days after oral arguments in this case challenging the indefinite suspension of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule pending future revision of the AFFH “assessment tool,” HUD announced its intention to make changes to the AFFH rule itself, to eliminate many of the most successful features of the rule, and to further water down the Fair Housing Act’s longstanding goal of an integrated society. See the “Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” here, good coverage of this new development at NBCnews, Citylab, and American Banker, and a statement by NFHA here. The battle has just begun…
Do federal housing programs give families with children access to high performing schools? Our 2018 update of the widely disseminated 2012 PRRAC report has just been published, along with detailed tables for each metropolitan area and each of the four major federal housing program areas. See Housing and Educational Opportunity: Characteristics of Local Schools Near Families With Federal Housing Assistance, by Ingrid Gould Ellen and Keren Horn. Some key findings:
-Families receiving all four major types of federal housing assistance lived near lower performing and higher poverty schools than other poor families with children as well as other renters with children.
-Among assisted families, those living in public housing lived near the most disadvantaged schools while those living in LIHTC developments lived near comparatively less disadvantaged schools than families in the other 3 programs.
-There are large variations across metropolitan areas in outcomes for assisted families. Assisted households tend to live near comparatively higher performing schools in smaller metropolitan areas in the South and West. Though we did not investigate why this may be the case it is likely that this relationship is driven by lower segregation levels and less segmented housing markets.
-Results are very similar overall to those in the 2012 report (which used 2008-09 data), suggesting that little has changed for the average assisted household in the wake of the great recession and the subsequent economic recovery.
Other Resources:
Great summary of benefits of source of income discrimination laws: Thanks to Rosie Tighe, Megan Hatch, and Joseph Mead for their excellent article in the summer issue of Shelterforce magazine, which will be very helpful to advocates marshalling arguments for new state laws and local ordinances. Also, congratulations to the Legal Aid Society of San Diego and San Diego tenant advocates for winning a campaign to pass the latest source of income discrimination ordinance in the U.S.
