Strong show of support for Small Area Fair Market Rents: Shortly before the December preliminary injunction hearing in Open Communities Alliance v. Carson, HUD issued a notice seeking comments on its August suspension of the SAFMR rule. The notice did not affect the judge’s ruling, but it did bring out a strong group of comments from advocates for low income families from across the country, including in many of the 23 affected metropolitan areas (accompanied by a few complaints from trade associations). A copy of letters from PRRAC, the Lawyers Committee, and the National Housing Law Project, along with selected local comment letters, are posted on our OCA v. Carson page. Shortly after the comment period closed, HUD issued new guidance on implementation of the Small Area FMRs, with a deadline of April 1 for PHAs in the 23 mandatory metro areas.
Other resources and events
New U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report tackles school segregation, school funding disparities, and the school-housing nexus. Now headed by Catherine Lhamon, former Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education, with a strong group of current Commission members and staff, the USCCR is performing a key watchdog function as the federal government attempts to dismantle civil rights progress across multiple agencies. PRRAC staff and board members participated in the hearings that led to the report, Public Education Funding Inequity in an Era of Increasing Concentration of Poverty and Resegregation. We were pleased to see alignment with many of our goals in the coming year, but there is much to do!
Congratulations to our former Board member Janis Bowdler (who now heads the community development division of JP Morgan Chase’s Global Philanthropy division) on the publication of her new book, Building Equitable Cities: How to Drive Economic Mobility and Regional Growth. Co-authored with former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros and Jeff Lubell of Abt Associates. Available from the Urban Land Institute.
Take a break from the Trump Administration in Berkeley on February 27-March 1, at the Haas Institute’s Kerner Commission at 50 conference!
