HUD today announced a new Fair Housing Act rule to “affirmatively further[] fair housing.”  The Fair Housing Act, passed in 1968, directs HUD to promote fair housing and equal opportunity, including addressing segregated housing patterns.  This new rule “aims to provide all HUD program participants with clear guidelines and data they can use to achieve those goals.”

The key features of the rule, according to HUD, include (1) “clarifying” existing fair housing obligations, (2) publicly opening data and mapping tools on fair housing, (3) changes to facilitate local decision-making, (4) new customized fair housing assessment tools, and (5) encouraging collaboration and communication among different communities.  In response to participant requests, the rule provides a “phase-in-implementation” to provide more time to adopt the rules.

Stay tuned for more details, and in the meantime, here are the key resources:

• A copy of the Final Rule can be found here.
• An Executive Summary describing the Final Rule can be found here.
• Additional resources for grantees click here.