New Lawsuit Filed Challenging HUD’s Maladministration of Fair Housing Grants: On June 24, 2025, the National Fair Housing Alliance and the Tennessee Fair Housing Council, represented by counsel from Relman & Colfax, filed a putative class action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The complaint alleges that HUD has violated the Administrative Procedure Act, separation of powers, the Constitution’s Appropriations Clause, and the Due Process Clause by refusing to administer funds appropriated by Congress for the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP). This conduct includes both the failure to award funds in response to notices of funding opportunity that the Department had already issued and the failure to initiate years two and three of three-year grants that had already been awarded. Fair housing groups previously brought suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to challenge the summary termination of existing grants. The FHIP program is essential to our efforts to root out housing discrimination and to create a more equitable, inclusive society.
Costs in Affordable Housing Development: A recent Washington Post articlehighlighted seemingly high per-unit costs at an affordable housing development in the relatively high-income Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Although the article had some valuable context about why the cost of producing high-quality affordable housing that is sensitive to civil rights concerns can be high, it did not paint a full picture of the situation. Letters to the editor from the Executive Director of the National Council of State Housing Agencies and the chair of the board of the nonprofit developer whose property was featured provided more insight. As housers, it is critical that we bring nuance to this conversation. Some features of affordable housing development projects increase costs, but they are still worth doing because they are socially useful and because there are hidden costs to the alternate path. We need three- and four-bedroom units even though they are more expensive on a per-unit basis than studios and one-bedroom units. We need affordable housing in higher opportunity areas even though the land is often more expensive than in high-poverty neighborhoods. If we do not bear the cost of green building features on the front-end, we face higher utility costs and greater climate risk on the back-end. There are many ways in which we can reduce affordable housing development costs, including by reducing the need for armies of lawyers and accountants and by expediting approval timelines, but those are undertakings that should be pursued with care.
Other news and resources
Structural Racism: The Dynamics of Opportunity and Race in America: Stephen Menendian of the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley will have a virtual book launch at 10:30 AM Eastern on Monday, June 30, during which he will be in conversation with PRRAC Board Secretary john powell and sociologist Michael Omi. You can register for the event here.
Webinar and Public Comment on Rescission of Affirmative Marketing Requirements: Today, June 26, at 2 PM Eastern, PRRAC and our partners at the Alliance for Housing Justice will be hosting a webinar on HUD’s proposed rescission of its affirmative marketing requirements. You can sign up to attend here. The comment period for the rule ends on Thursday, July 3. You can submit a comment in opposition to the proposed rule here.
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