Quint-Regional FHIP/FHAP Training Conference
Remarks as prepared for delivery by Secretary Mel Martinez
Atlanta, Georgia
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
Thank you, Assistant Secretary Peoples, for that generous introduction.
I want to congratulate the fair housing award recipients on the
great work they are doing to promote fair housing in their communities.
The recipients represent 5 different regions. This shows that our
efforts to advance equal opportunity are reaching every corner of
this nation.
I also want to recognize Peggy Conlon, President and CEO of The
Advertising Council. HUD has formed an exciting, world-class partnership
with Peggy and her team, which I will tell you about in a moment.
On April 2nd, we kicked off Fair Housing Month with an event at
HUD featuring Lynda Robb Johnson. As you know, her father - President
Lyndon Johnson - signed the Fair Housing Act into law 35 years ago
this month.
The Act defined for the first time a national commitment to eliminating
housing discrimination. The passage of the Act came soon after a
tragic moment in our nation's history - the assassination of
Dr. Martin Luther King.
During his remarkable life, Dr. King made housing discrimination
a centerpiece of his fight for fairness and equality. Congress tried
to pass a fair housing bill for two years, but supporters never
mustered enough votes to move the legislation forward.
Dr. King's assassination on April 4, 1968, changed all that. President
Johnson saw the fair housing legislation as a fitting memorial to
Dr. King's work and urged Congress to enact it immediately.
Congress did, just seven days later. On April 11, 1968, President
Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act into law. Today, it defines
one of our central missions at HUD: to ensure that all housing is
fair housing.
While we shine the spotlight on this issue each April, I assure
you that combating housing discrimination is a 365-day-a-year battle
that President Bush takes very seriously. And we appreciate the
hard work that all of you put in on a daily basis to increase housing
opportunities for all Americans.
As the racial and ethnic makeup of America continues to evolve,
the need for a strong commitment to fair and equal treatment in
the housing market will become even more urgent. Over two-thirds
of the new households being formed this decade will be minority
and immigrant.
We have made progress in ridding our communities of housing discrimination,
but we have not yet reached the point where discrimination is a
thing of the past. Recent studies tell us that minorities continue
to face intolerable discrimination from mortgage lenders, real estate
agents and apartment rental agents.
HUD's study of discrimination in metropolitan markets, which we
issued last year, found that discrimination against African-Americans
and Hispanics in home sales has modestly declined since we last
studied the issue in 1989. In addition, rental discrimination against
African-Americans has also gone down.
But we have made little progress on rental discrimination against
Hispanics. Hispanics face discrimination one out of every four times
they try to rent an apartment - the same level of discrimination
they encountered in 1989. We must do better.
Recently, we have found that reported cases of housing discrimination
are on the rise. This is not entirely a bad thing. As I have said,
discrimination is still a problem for African-Americans and Hispanics
when they try to buy or rent homes. This is well-documented.
But research indicates that less than 1% of suspected instances
of discrimination are reported to the authorities. If reported cases
of discrimination are on the rise, this means that our efforts to
educate minority home buyers and renters about their rights are
having success.
I am proud that President Bush's budget request to Congress asks
for the largest ever fair housing budget: $50 million to assist
our partners in targeting discrimination and educating people about
their fair housing rights. This will ensure that we have the tools
we need to increase public awareness of housing rights
and
the tools necessary to enforce the Fair Housing Act.
President Bush has set a goal of increasing the number of minority
homeowners by 5.5 million by 2010. This is a priority because of
the "homeownership gap" that exists between minorities
and non-minorities. This gap has many causes, but discrimination
is certainly a major factor.
Earlier this month, HUD and representatives of the real estate
industry once again joined forces when we signed an agreement that
builds on our shared commitment to lifting more minorities into
homeownership.
The agreement signed by HUD and the national associations representing
realtors, real estate brokers, Hispanic real estate professionals,
and Asian American real estate professionals outlines specific commitments
by our partners to eliminate discrimination that blocks families
from homeownership.
At HUD, among our efforts is a $600,000 initiative to combat lending
discrimination, including predatory lending. This initiative will
examine the lending patterns in the prime and subprime markets,
and take action where the law has been violated.
We are also working in close concert with state and local governments,
fair housing groups, and the lending and real estate industries,
to implement a major education and enforcement campaign designed
to reduce predatory lending practices.
HUD is also beefing up our enforcement of fair housing laws. This
means doing more timely and efficient investigations of cases that
allege mortgage discrimination. We are acquiring software that will
help us better analyze loans so we can handle these cases more efficiently.
And we have already made significant progress in this area. In
January 2001, when the Bush Administration took office, HUD's percentage
of "aged" cases - those cases that hadn't been resolved
within the 100-day period established by law - was 85 percent. By
committing additional staff and resources, we've reduced the percentage
to 29 percent, the lowest it has ever been.
Another of HUD's major responsibilities is ensuring equal access
for individuals with disabilities, and increasing the number of
housing units accessible to them.
We are bolstering our efforts through HUD's most extensive housing
accessibility training program to date. We launched the Fair Housing
Accessibility FIRST program in January. FIRST is designed to help
architects, builders, disability advocates, and others design and
construct multifamily housing that complies with Fair Housing Act
requirements.
In addition, HUD awarded a $900,000 grant to the International
Code Council to help state and local governments adopt building
codes that are consistent with the Act.
When builders, developers and architects receive the information
they need, we help them avoid costly retrofitting. Ultimately, this
increases housing opportunities for persons with disabilities.
Today, I am announcing another major step in our efforts to increase
awareness of fair housing laws.
I am pleased to be joined by Peggy Conlon, President of The Ad
Council. We have worked in partnership to produce a public education
campaign, funded by HUD, to increase awareness of housing
discrimination.
Also joining this partnership are the Leadership Conference
on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF) and the National
Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA). LCCREF has worked with the Ad
Council since 1992 on a number of anti-discrimination campaigns.
LCCREF and NFHA will be working with their numerous local affiliates
and community organizations to promote this campaign.
This will be a nationwide ad campaign in both English and Spanish.
Television, radio and print Public Service Announcements will be
distributed to more than 28,000 media outlets. This effort will
benefit all Americans, particularly minorities, by increasing recognition
and reporting of housing discrimination.
It is now with great pleasure that I welcome Peggy Conlon, who
will discuss in further detail our partnership and the work that
went into producing these wonderful ads.
Please join me in welcoming Peggy Conlon.
Content Archived: March 16, 2010
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