Trump Erases More Obama: Wiping Out 2015 Fair Housing Anti-Discrimination Rule

Like Father, Like Son: Against Minorities in Rentals

A bit more and a different slant on this rather shocking story (so typically Trump to once again as many times before, attempt or in this case to actually erase anything to do with former president Barack Obama) – 

This story from Business Insider:

§    President Donald Trump on Thursday (July 23) repealed an Obama-era bill designed to prevent segregation in housing projects that receive federal funding. 

§    The move comes as Trump's support among suburban voters is crumbling, with many angry at his responses to the coronavirus crisis and the anti-racism protests.

§    Trump tweeted Thursday night: “Biden will destroy your neighborhood and your American Dream. I will preserve it, and make it even better!” 

§    Critics say the president's actions are “fearmongering and these racial dog whistles, and that educated suburban voters would not find that impressive.”

Trump repealed an Obama-era bill designed to prevent segregation in housing units that receive federal funding, in an apparent and blatant bid to win back the support of white suburban voters who polls show are abandoning him. 
An excellent review from NOLO (legal site): “What Kind of Housing Discrimination is Illegal?” The Fair Housing Act (1968) can be seen here at HUD's official site.

Original post starts below:

Pretty sickening story about another Trump move to erase “anything Obama” here from The Hill with this headline:

“Trump administration ends Obama fair housing rule”

The Trump administration on Thursday (July 23) repealed an Obama administration rule meant to combat housing discrimination that Trump cites as he tries to portray Democratic challenger Joe Biden as a threat to suburban voters.

HUD announced it was replacing the “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” rule implemented in 2015 with its own policy, dubbed “Preserving Community and Neighborhood Choice.” 

This statement from HUD Secretary Ben Carson: “After reviewing thousands of comments on the proposed changes to the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation, we found it to be unworkable and ultimately a waste of time for localities to comply with, too often resulting in funds being steered away from communities that need them most.” 

Note: Under the new rule, local officials have significantly more jurisdiction in determining what qualifies as fair housing and how to promote its accessibility. 

According to HUD, to qualify as fair housing under the new rule, a development must be “affordable, safe, decent, free of unlawful discrimination, and accessible under civil rights laws.”

Efforts to further fair housing are redefined under the rule to include “any action rationally related to promoting any of the above attributes of fair housing.”

The Obama rule previously required localities to draw up plans to address housing discrimination in order to receive certain federal funding.

The Trump administration gutted it more than two years ago, making it largely toothless.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, said in a statement: “It’s a dark day for the country when the President boasts about maintaining housing segregation, and the agency charged with carrying out the Fair Housing Act becomes a tool to help him do it.”

This action follows weeks of rhetoric from Trump warning about threats to the suburbs as he courts those voters ahead of November's election. He specifically cited the Obama-era housing rule, arguing that it took zoning decisions out of the hands of local officials.

Trump the same day tweeted a New York Post column criticizing Biden's housing platform saying: “The Suburban Housewives of America must read this article. Biden will destroy your neighborhood and your American Dream. I will preserve it, and make it even better!”

At a White House event earlier this month, Trump claimed a Biden presidency would: “Totally destroy the beautiful suburbs. Suburbia will be no longer as we know it. So they wanted to defund and abolish your police and law enforcement while at the same time destroying our great suburbs.”

Some have condemned Trump's rhetoric as stoking racial animus by suggesting the implementation of fair housing standards that largely benefit minorities would lead to the destruction of the suburbs.

Historical Note: Trump and his father were sued in 1973 for basically having a racial policy toward public housing and rentals to minority American in the suburbs – now history may be repeating itself – more details on this below in my final comments.

As far as Biden is concerned, he has vowed in his campaign's housing plan to reinstate the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule and provide tax incentives to build more affordable housing in suburban, urban and rural areas.

Noteworthy: Suburban voters, and suburban women in particular, will be a critical voting bloc for Trump if he hopes to win reelection in November. 

A CNN 2016 exit poll found that 49% of suburban voters backed Trump that was compared to 45% for Hillary Clinton. But many of those same voters backed Democratic candidates in the 2018 midterms, helping the party take control of the House, and now an ABC News-Washington Post poll just released found that Biden is leading Trump among suburban registered voters, 52 to 43 percent.

My 2 cents: Now the 1973 history and case re: Trump discrimination lawsuit I mentioned above. The whole Federal civil suit story against Trump and his father back in 1973 is here from the Washington Post – this is the key summary (actual extract from Court Case):

The government’s case against Trump and father: “… had the racial coding, they had the testers, and had the testimony of people who worked there. It was an important, significant step for enforcement of the Fair Housing Act. It was a big deal.”

But, in typical Trump style then and it is now, that’s not how Donald J. Trump considered it.

He declared victory, in part because the agreement specifically stated that Trump made the deal without acknowledging wrongdoing.

In his autobiography in later years, Trump minimized the case’s impact, writing: “In the end the government couldn’t prove its case, and we ended up making a minor settlement without admitting any guilt.”

Boy is that Trump still today. Sadly many people still fall for his skillful con and total BS game. We’ll see in November won’t we? 

But there are still 100 days until November 3, 2020, and heluva lot of damage can be inflicted by Trump before then. 

This story is just one recent example how his is trying to change the face of America to be the “Face of Trump.” We must not allow that. 

Thanks for stopping by.