SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
HUD Secretary Ben Carson has announced several rollbacks of efforts to combat housing discrimination since taking the helm at the federal housing agency. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr/cc)
Carson Pulls Tool Used by Officials to Identify Segregation
In latest decision to roll back efforts to promote fair housing, Carson "shows no vision for confronting segregation"
May 19, 2018
In the latest sign that the Trump administration is systematically sabotaging the stated missions of federal government agencies, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced this week that it was doing away with efforts to identify segregation in American communities.
HUD announced on Friday evening that it would pull an online assessment tool that communities can use to find data and maps of segregated neighborhoods.
The announcement came just weeks after fair housing groups filed a lawsuit against the agency over its suspension of rules demanding that communities address segregation.
In response to the suit, said one of the plaintiffs, HUD Secretary Ben Carson is attempting to challenge anti-segregation efforts in a new way.
"They're trying to achieve the same goal, just through a different avenue," Lisa Rice, president of the National Fair Housing Alliance, told the Washington Post. "They're trying to get out from under the lawsuit. Instead of suspending the rule, they're making the tool that communities use to follow the rule null and void."
The Local Government Assessment Tool was developed by the Obama administration and contained questions that local officials could answer regarding practices that influenced fair housing in their communities. The tool was meant to encourage full compliance with the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which requires local officials use federal dollars to combat racial segregation.
According to former HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary Salin Geevarghese, the tool received positive feedback from community leaders attempting to increase compliance.
Since being appointed as HUD Secretary, Carson has eliminated the phrase "inclusive communities...free from discrimination" from the department's mission statement, abandoned investigations into alleged fair housing violations, and tripled rent costs for low-income Americans who rely on housing assistance--prompting alarm and condemnation from critics and civil rights advocates.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
In the latest sign that the Trump administration is systematically sabotaging the stated missions of federal government agencies, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced this week that it was doing away with efforts to identify segregation in American communities.
HUD announced on Friday evening that it would pull an online assessment tool that communities can use to find data and maps of segregated neighborhoods.
The announcement came just weeks after fair housing groups filed a lawsuit against the agency over its suspension of rules demanding that communities address segregation.
In response to the suit, said one of the plaintiffs, HUD Secretary Ben Carson is attempting to challenge anti-segregation efforts in a new way.
"They're trying to achieve the same goal, just through a different avenue," Lisa Rice, president of the National Fair Housing Alliance, told the Washington Post. "They're trying to get out from under the lawsuit. Instead of suspending the rule, they're making the tool that communities use to follow the rule null and void."
The Local Government Assessment Tool was developed by the Obama administration and contained questions that local officials could answer regarding practices that influenced fair housing in their communities. The tool was meant to encourage full compliance with the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which requires local officials use federal dollars to combat racial segregation.
According to former HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary Salin Geevarghese, the tool received positive feedback from community leaders attempting to increase compliance.
Since being appointed as HUD Secretary, Carson has eliminated the phrase "inclusive communities...free from discrimination" from the department's mission statement, abandoned investigations into alleged fair housing violations, and tripled rent costs for low-income Americans who rely on housing assistance--prompting alarm and condemnation from critics and civil rights advocates.
In the latest sign that the Trump administration is systematically sabotaging the stated missions of federal government agencies, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced this week that it was doing away with efforts to identify segregation in American communities.
HUD announced on Friday evening that it would pull an online assessment tool that communities can use to find data and maps of segregated neighborhoods.
The announcement came just weeks after fair housing groups filed a lawsuit against the agency over its suspension of rules demanding that communities address segregation.
In response to the suit, said one of the plaintiffs, HUD Secretary Ben Carson is attempting to challenge anti-segregation efforts in a new way.
"They're trying to achieve the same goal, just through a different avenue," Lisa Rice, president of the National Fair Housing Alliance, told the Washington Post. "They're trying to get out from under the lawsuit. Instead of suspending the rule, they're making the tool that communities use to follow the rule null and void."
The Local Government Assessment Tool was developed by the Obama administration and contained questions that local officials could answer regarding practices that influenced fair housing in their communities. The tool was meant to encourage full compliance with the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which requires local officials use federal dollars to combat racial segregation.
According to former HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary Salin Geevarghese, the tool received positive feedback from community leaders attempting to increase compliance.
Since being appointed as HUD Secretary, Carson has eliminated the phrase "inclusive communities...free from discrimination" from the department's mission statement, abandoned investigations into alleged fair housing violations, and tripled rent costs for low-income Americans who rely on housing assistance--prompting alarm and condemnation from critics and civil rights advocates.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.