Responses to the AFFH Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: We responded in detail to HUD’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, emphasizing the central importance of the Fair Housing Act’s pro-integration mandate. See our letter, along with selected comments from other housing and civil rights groups here.
Last week’s 7th National Housing Mobility Conference was a great success, with over 200 attendees, almost half from public housing authorities. We have posted the conference program, photos, and powerpoints from the panel presentations here. There is a lot of excitement in this field, as more PHAs and nonprofits are starting housing mobility programs, and learning from new research, innovation, and the solid base of practice that has evolved in established mobility programs.
Civil Rights Intersections: Celebrating 50 Years of the Fair Housing Act: We have also posted some interesting video excerpts from this symposium we sponsored at the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth and Reconciliation this past April. Worth watching, and see especially Damon Hewitt’s lunchtime interview of civil rights veteran Bruce Boynton (of Boynton v. Virginia) and his wife Betty. (And there is more where that came from. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here so you don’t miss the latest updates.)
Other events and resources
CBPP webinar this afternoon on expanding housing opportunity: The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is hosting a webinar on state and local policies to expand access to high-opportunity neighborhoods today (October 25) from 2pm-3pm ET. To register for this free webinar, click here. The webinar will summarize two recent reports from CBPP, on source-of-income discrimination, and on the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program.
Competing priorities in LIHTC: A new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation shines a light on a major fair housing challenge of housing preservation – in order to preserve developments that are reaching the 30-year deadline for expiration of their tax credit subsidy, it may be necessary to divert substantial low-income housing resources to reinvest in 30-year-old, geographically unbalanced siting decisions, at a time when many policymakers are opting for a more balanced low-income housing investment strategy to expand family housing choice. At the same time, the smaller number of expiring use family developments in high opportunity areas faces the greatest risk of loss. See Balancing Priorities: Preservation and Neighborhood Opportunity in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program Beyond Year 30.
Mapping segregation website: Mapping Segregation in Washington DC is a digital public history project documenting the historic extent of racially restricted housing, block by block – a sophisticated local demonstration of some of the history outlined in Richard Rothstein’s Color of Law, the website shows neighborhood change over time and the way the past is embedded in current racial patterns.
Educational equity website: Also check out this interesting interactive website from Pro Publica, “Miseducation: Is There Racial Inequality at Your School?”
A Shared Future: Fostering Communities of Inclusion in an Era of Inequality: The Joint Center for Housing Studies’ new book is available for purchase or free download. Lots of PRRAC-related authors in this volume! Including chapters authored or co-authored by PRRAC Board members Sheryll Cashin, Justin Steil, Betsy Julian, and Anurima Bhargava; PRRAC Social Science Advisory Board members Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, Maria Krysan, Marge Turner, and Ingrid Ellen; and PRRAC Executive Director Philip Tegeler.
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