The law also did something else: It required cities to "affirmatively further fair housing" — that is, to actively eliminate segregation in their communities.
Presidential administrations of both parties never fully enforced the most aggressive remedies in the Fair Housing Act, which made local communities' access to federal housing dollars contingent on their efforts to "affirmatively further" fair housing — the opposite of federal policy in the '30s and '40s.
(1) The jurisdiction shall consult with local PHAs operating in the jurisdiction regarding consideration of public housing needs, planned programs and activities, the AFH, strategies for affirmatively furthering fair housing, and proposed actions to affirmatively further fair housing in the consolidated plan.
The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. - HUD published regulations strengthening requirements of local governments to affirmatively further fair housing while undertaking community planning exercises in order to undo residential segregation and promote diverse, inclusive communities.
"That is the very insight that motivated Senator Edward Brooke — another African-American Republican — to include a provision in the 1968 Fair Housing Act requiring cities, counties and states to 'affirmatively further fair housing' as a condition of receiving federal funding," Michael Allen, a lawyer with the civil-rights law firm Relman, Dane & Colfax, wrote in an email.
This consultation will help provide a better basis for the jurisdiction's AFH, its certification to affirmatively further fair housing, and other portions of the consolidated plan concerning affirmatively furthering fair housing.
Constricted mobility patterns like this show the value of HUD's redoubled effort to affirmatively further fair housing.
The lawsuit also charges that the county made a false claim when it certified that the communities had met the demands of the Fair Housing Act, which include a requirement to "affirmatively further" fair housing.
HUD last year was barraged with angry public comments on a proposed rule governing a seldom-used part of the Fair Housing Act that requires the government to "affirmatively further" fair housing in pursuit of integration.
