On Wednesday, HUD took a big step toward fixing its own ineffectiveness, releasing a new rule that requires that cities and regions evaluate the presence of fair housing in their communities, submit reports detailing the presence of segregation and blight, and detail what they plan to do about it. Communities will be required to hold meetings or otherwise solicit public opinion about housing planning and integration every five years, and will have a new trove of resources to assess their progress.
According to President Obama’s HUD director that means moving poor families into richer, unsegregated neighborhoods and providing grants for improving areas of concentrated poverty.
“One of the problems with the failure to really give this statutory provision meaning and teeth up until now is that people could pretend it didn’t mean anything, and failure to comply with it didn’t have consequences,” said Betsy Julian, the president of Inclusive Communities Project, a Dallas non-profit that recently won a Supreme Court case protecting parts of the Fair Housing Act. (Julian also served as HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity in the Clinton Administration.)
In simple language, Bucks has too few poor people so HUD plans to move ’em in. One poor family for every five rich ones sounds about right. Have a poor house in your own back yard.
“This important step will give local leaders the tools they need to provide all Americans with access to safe, affordable housing in communities that are rich with opportunity,” said HUD Secretary Julian Castro.
Parts of the new rule will take effect in 30 days.
It’s a way to make Bucks less safe so parts of Philly can be made more safe. Does that mean once Philly is safe the poor can be moved back?
The Federal Government thinks poverty means some people live in the wrong place so moving them into a more expensive neighborhood will cure the problems of the poor. More craziness from Washington D.C.
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