WASHINGTON — Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner is set to announce the elimination a costly Obama- and Biden-era federal zoning rule on Wednesday that President Trump warned would “destroy” suburban neighborhoods nationwide.
“Local and state governments understand the needs of their communities much better than bureaucrats in Washington, DC,” Turner said in a statement exclusively shared with The Post. “Terminating this rule restores trust in local communities and property owners, while protecting America’s suburbs and neighborhood integrity.”
By terminating the AFFH [Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing] rule, localities will no longer be required to complete onerous paperwork and drain their budgets to comply with the extreme and restrictive demands made up by the federal government,” he added.
“As HUD returns to the original understanding and enforcement of the law without onerous compliance requirements, we can better serve rural, urban and tribal communities that need access to fair and affordable housing.”
The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule had forced localities receiving federal funds to compile and analyze data on whether their policies were contributing to so-called “segregated living patterns.”
Proponents of the initiative begun in 2015 under former President Barack Obama have said it would increase opportunities for low-income minorities to live in suburban residential areas.
But critics have faulted the rule for its heavy-handed approach to local zoning by mandating the building of affordable housing units and imposing de facto racial quotas.
In a June 2020 Rose Garden speech, Trump said the rule, which then-HUD secretary Ben Carson had scrapped, empowered “far-left Washington bureaucrats” to “eliminate single-family zoning to destroy the value of houses.”
Former President Joe Biden had revised and reimplemented AFFH during the latter part of his term.
Economic experts at the libertarian Cato Institute have also noted that the rule did little to reduce racial or income segregation in neighborhoods, while costing US taxpayers up to $55 million per year.
Carson in the first Trump administration had terminated the rule, which has its roots in provisions of the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
Opponents of the Obama-Biden housing move have also noted that the legislation’s text says nothing about “segregation.”
Turner added that many communities have been “negatively impacted due to the demands of recent AFFH rules.”
“Returning to the law as written will advance market-driven development and allow American neighborhoods to flourish,” he said.
