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HUD Rule on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released a final rule to equip communities that receive HUD funding with the data and tools that will help them to meet long-standing fair housing obligations in their use of HUD funds. HUD will provide publicly open data for grantees to use to assess the state of fair housing within their communities and to set locally -determined priorities and goals. The rule responds to recommendations of the Government Accountability Office and stakeholders for HUD to enhance its fair housing planning obligations by providing greater clarity and support to jurisdictions receiving HUD funding, and facilitating local decision-making on fair housing priorities and goals. For more than forty years, HUD funding recipients have been obligated by law to reduce barriers to fair housing. Established in the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the law directs HUD and its program participants to affirmatively further the Act's goals of promoting fair housing and equal opportunity. The final rule on affirmatively furthering fair housing (AFFH) aims to provide all HUD grantees with clear guidelines and the data that will help them to achieve those goals, because no child's ZIP code should determine her opportunity to achieve. HUD's rule clarifies and simplifies existing fair housing obligations for HUD grantees to analyze their fair housing landscape and set locally -determined fair housing priorities and goals through an Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH). To aid communities in this work, HUD will provide open data to grantees and the public on patterns of integration and segregation, racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty, disproportionate housing needs, and disparities in access to opportunity. This improved approach provides a better mechanism for HUD grantees to build fair housing goals into their existing community development and housing planning processes. In addition to providing data and maps, HUD will also provide technical assistance to aid grantees as they adopt this approach. Key features of this final rule include: • Clarifying existing fair housing obligations. ions. Existing patterns of meeting AFFH obligations have been undermined by limited access to data about fair housing conditions and access to opportunity. A Government Accountability Office report from 2010 also cited a lack of clarity, standards, and transparency for communities under the current process. HUD's rule clarifies and standardizes this process. • Publicly open data on fair housing and access to opportunity. HUD will provide publicly open data and mapping tools to aid community members and local leaders in setting local fair housing priorities and goals. • A balanced approach to fair housing. The final rule helps to facilitate communities relying on local knowledge and local decision-making to determine best strategies for meeting their fair housing obligations at the local level — including making place -based investments to revitalize distressed areas, or expanding access to quality affordable housing throughout a community. ATTACHMENT 2 P222