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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