Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice in the District of Columbia

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

Note: This 149-page report is available in its entirety in PDF Format.

The text below is an introduction to the complete document.

Introduction

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a longstanding commitment to eliminate racial and ethnic segregation and other discriminatory practices in the provision of housing. As stated on the HUD web site:

It is HUD's mission to promote nondiscrimination and ensure fair and equal housing opportunities for all. In an ongoing effort to provide services and activities on a nondiscriminatory manner and to affirmatively further fair housing, HUD is charged by law to implement and enforce a wide array of civil rights laws, not only for members of the public in search of fair housing, but for HUD funded grant recipients as well.

HUD extends the responsibility of affirmatively furthering fair housing to local jurisdictions through a variety of regulations and program requirements. For example, HUD requires all local jurisdictions participating in the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME), Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG), and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) formula programs to complete an annual Consolidated Plan, which establishes a “unified vision for community development actions.” As part of the consolidated plan process, jurisdictions are required to complete an analysis of impediments to fair housing choice (“analysis of impediments”) report and to take actions to overcome the effects of any impediments identified through that analysis.

In addition to being the local government entity responsible for implementing HUD’s consolidated planning requirement, the District of Columbia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) shares HUD’s commitment to promoting fair housing choice for all residents of Washington, D.C. In partial fulfillment of its responsibilities to HUD and to the citizens of the District of Columbia, DHCD contracted with the Urban Institute of Washington, D.C., to prepare an updated analysis of impediments report for the District of Columbia.

This report, Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice in the District of Columbia, is the result of that effort. According to the HUD Fair Housing Planning Guide, an analysis of impediments should include:

• a comprehensive review of a jurisdiction’s laws, regulations, and administrative policies, procedures, and practices;
• an assessment of how those laws, regulations, and administrative policies, procedures, and practices affect the location, availability, and accessibility of housing; and
• an assessment of the conditions, both public and private, affecting fair housing choice.

The Fair Housing Planning Guide further states that the goal of the analysis of impediments is to identify impediments to fair housing choice in the public and private sector. The Guide defines impediments to fair housing choice as

• any actions, omissions, or decisions taken because of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin which restrict housing choices or the availability of housing choices; and
• any actions, omissions, or decisions which have the effect of restricting housing choices or the availability of housing choices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin.

It is important to note that HUD does not restrict the scope of the analysis of impediments to only those actions that are in direct violation of fair housing laws, but rather to any actions, omissions, or decisions that may have an ultimate effect of restricting housing choice. Consequently, we have taken an appropriately broad view of the issues that impact fair housing choice in this analysis of impediments. To be clear, however, we will throughout this report distinguish between those actions that may be viewed strictly as violations of fair housing laws and those that may have a fair housing impact but are not necessarily illegal.

We recognize that the District of Columbia’s housing market is integrated into the larger metropolitan area. As such, housing choice is not only affected by real estate market participants in the city, but also by participants who are active in nearby jurisdictions. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis would analyze the range of impediments throughout the area. While this analysis is restricted to highlighting impediments in the District of Columbia and making recommendations for those impediments, it is very likely that these recommendations would be more effective if they were implemented in coordination with nearby local jurisdictions in Virginia and Maryland.

The next two sections provide an overview of the methods we used to prepare this analysis of impediments and a summary of the key findings and recommendations. The findings and recommendations are discussed in detail in the rest of this report. Background and supporting materials can be found in the attachments to the main report.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in PDF Format.

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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