City is not in violation of Fair Housing Laws, activists say
Civil rights activists took aim at HUD's announcement of a Fair Housing investigation into the City of Boston.
HUD’s planned investigation of Boston for alleged discrimination against whites is an inversion of the Fair Housing Act law the federal agency is charged with enforcing, a coalition of civil rights and housing activists said at a press conference Monday.
Gathering at City Hall, coalition members said a Dec. 11 HUD letter claiming the city is violating the rights of whites by using “Diversity Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) practices is factually incorrect and runs counter to the Fair Housing Act, which requires that jurisdictions take affirmative steps to dismantle barriers and expand access to housing.
“Boston’s efforts that HUD cites in its letter to direct resources and opportunities in home buying and lending to residents of color, and to invest in underserved communities, do not, and cannot violate the Fair Housing Act, because they are exactly the types of efforts that the Fair Housing Act requires,” said Jillian Lenson, a senior attorney with Lawyers for Civil Rights.
In a December 11 press release, HUD secretary Scott Turner cited the city’s Equity and Inclusion cabinet’s stated commitment to “eliminating racial disparities and the legacy of racism” in city government.
“We believe the City of Boston has engaged in a social engineering project that intentionally advances discriminatory housing policies driven by an ideological commitment to DEI rather than merit or need,” Turner said in the press release. “HUD is committed to protecting every American’s civil rights and will thoroughly investigate the City’s stated goal of ‘integrating racial equity into every layer of city government.’ This warped mentality will be fully exposed, and Boston will come into full compliance with federal anti-discrimination law.”
The activists at the Monday press conference said the city’s efforts are aimed at rectifying decades of discriminatory practices in the private housing market, in banking and in the Boston Housing Authority — practices that have led to historic inequities.
Hillary Pizer, director of organizing and Policy at the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, cited discriminatory Federal Housing Administration policies that barred people of color from receiving federally insured home mortgage loans as a major reason driving home ownership disparities in Boston. While 44% of whites in Boston own their homes, only 30% of Blacks and Asians do and just 17% of Latinos, she noted.
“Right now, over the past two years, Black families or households are about 20% of the population and got 9% of the home mortgage loans,” Pizer said. “Latino families, also about 20% of the population, got 8% of the whole mortgage loans.”
In HUD’s Dec. 11 letter to Boston, Assistant Secretary of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Craig Trainor takes aim at what he refers to as the city’s “racialist theory of housing justice” and cites the city’s stated goals of targeting homebuyer outreach at Black and Latino families and pressuring banks to increase lending in communities of color. Trainor also
cites language on the city’s website that affirms Boston’s commitment to “reduce racial disparities through homeownership and development opportunities for BIPOC-led organizations.”
The city’s Welcome Home Boston program makes city-owned lots available to developers for the creation of affordable housing and prioritizes minority-led development teams and the city’s anti-displacement action plan.
Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts CEO Rahsaan Hall stressed that the city’s programs aimed at countering the effects historical discrimination against Blacks in Boston are allowed under the Fair Housing Act.
“Boston housing history is not up for debate,” he said. “Black families were locked out by design, redlining, exclusionary zoning, discriminatory lending were very real things, and their effects are still with us today. Pretending that efforts to address those harms somehow constitutes anti-white bias is a profound distortion of reality.”
Trainor said HUD’s Fair Housing Enforcement Office will investigate the city’s fair housing programs and refer the matter to the Department of Justice.
Lenson of Lawyers for Civil Rights said HUD’s public announcement is an unusual step for the agency.
“This is an initial announcement of an investigation, which is a pretty unprecedented step,” she said. “Typically, investigations would not come with a big press release like this.”
Nadine Cohen, a longtime civil rights attorney said HUD’s announcement has subverted the typical legal process for complaints.
“What I think is absolutely incredible is that before any investigation, HUD has put in writing that they think the city has discriminated,” she said. “There is no basis for them to do that before any investigation. They have done the conclusion before the process.”
Activists at the Monday press conference called on the Wu administration to defend its practices.
“We urge the City to continue and defend its fair housing commitments — by moving forward with its anti-displacement plan, advancing Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing-aligned zoning that curbs speculative development, and expanding public tools to preserve long-term affordability,” said Franny Xi Wu, assistant director of the Chinatown Land Trust.
