FY 1998 - 2003 Strategic Plan
Strategic Objective #7
Promote equal housing opportunities for those protected by
law.
Introduction
As HUD fundamentally alters its organizational structure and
reforms its management approach to administering its programs,
it is essential to shape a new strategy for promoting equal housing
opportunity for those the law protects against discrimination.
A new strategy must: (1) focus all discretionary elements2 of the fair housing program (human, financial and
material resources) more effectively; and (2) measure their impact
more precisely than before. The ability to measure outcomes in
order to justify resources is more critical than ever in the context
of shrinking budgets and staffing.
This new strategy for the deployment of discretionary program
resources will replace approaches which have resulted in the spreading
of scarce resources over widely dispersed areas of the country
in an effort to battle discrimination and promote equal housing
opportunity. Instead, resources must be more highly focused and
better coordinated with each other in order to achieve a meaningful
impact. They also must be coordinated with: (1) the other program
areas of the Department; (2) with other Federal agencies, State
and local governments; and (3) with the private sector, including
not-for-profit and for profit housing, consumer and civil rights
components.
The strategy which follows is a significant departure from previous
approaches to fair housing. The four strategic components described
below are designed to respond to the challenges of the Results
Act, to maximize the effective use of the new FHEO structure of
HUBs and Zones, and to make use of the HUD management reforms
that distinguish between monitoring, auditing and enforcing on
the one hand and furthering, facilitating, promoting and partnering
on the other. In so doing, they are intended to increase the
emphasis on "partnering" both within the Department
and externally with HUD program recipients and those organizations
and individuals who, whether recipients or not, have a major stake
in helping to create a Nation of open communities.
The new strategy must be mindful of the fact that many disability
rights organizations reported that the Department is funding a
large number of townhouse developments (multi-story units) which
are, by their nature, inaccessible to people with disabilities,
and that it is not enough to just make the lower level of such
units accessible. We have been asked to assure that multi-story
townhouse developments integrate single-story units to meet the
5% accessibility requirements under Section 504 of the Rehabilitations
Act of 1973.
The Department intends to promote equal housing opportunities
by encouraging the "visitability" concept throughout
the homeownership and other housing programs. The concept means
that homes will have at least one entrance at grade (no step)
and all doors contain 32" clear space.
HUD's efforts to promote equal housing opportunities go beyond
enforcement. Discrimination is reality for many Americans, particularly
the poor. HUD's programs and initiatives strive to provide housing,
employment, and services to disadvantaged Americans, many of whom
are ethnic minorities. Thus, HUD"s programs such as Section
8, CDBG, and HOME, which are targeted to the poor, necessarily
have as their end the promotion of equal opportunity.
One America: Cracking Down on Housing Discrimination
To further the President's recently announced initiative on race,
HUD proposes to double over the next four years the percentage
of housing discrimination cases where enforcement action is taken.
This step is vital to ensuring One America because the freedom
and dignity of choosing where you live is a choice every American
should have.
Strategies
Demonstrate the impact of FHEO programs on expanding housing
opportunities and addressing discrimination in measurable ways
by concentrating program resources in a selected number of communities.
FHEO will develop criteria to select a fixed number of communities
-- urban, suburban and rural -- in all of the ten HUBs that our
program operates. These selections will be made to assure a reasonable
representation of communities with a variety of geographic, demographic
and program characteristics revealing civil rights problems so
that they will be fairly representative of the diverse nature
of fair housing program challenges nationwide. Such factors will
be considered as: their degree of segregation; changing racial
and other demographics; the presence or absence of private fair
housing enforcement activity and certified State and local agencies;
the extent, quality, and effectiveness of local fair housing planning;
the existence of effective regional institutions; the extent of
mortgage lending to minorities, and the nature of housing issues
identified in the Analysis of Impediments.
The full range of FHEO enforcement, compliance and program activities
(such as FHIP, FHAP, and voluntary programs) will be provided
in these locations with the objective of reducing discrimiNation
in housing and housing related services in those communities by
application of a focused civil rights effort. The program will
build upon the identification and analysis of impediments to fair
housing and a community's plan to address them. Such actions
are required by HUD for receipt of funding under the Department's
major community development programs. The Office of FHEO will
seek to work with communities to develop program approaches which
will remove those impediments and to measure the real impact of
those focused fair housing efforts.
Data baselines will be developed against which benchmarks can
be measured over a ten year period to chart progress in achieving
equal housing opportunity. The baselines will track the extent
of such measures as: increases in mortgage lending to protected
classes, the availability of property insurance and mortgages
in minority and/or inner-city or lower income areas, the existence
of units accessible to persons with disabilities, discrimination
complaint levels, the incidence of discrimination in sales or
rental of housing, the existence of inappropriate/inadequate housing
choices for persons with disabilities, the existence of discriminatory
zoning and land use regulations, the extent of segregation in
public and assisted housing, and the removal of identified barriers
to housing mobility and choice. Progress will be measured over
the ten year period to determine the extent to which program components
are successful in producing meaningful outcomes.
Expand in measurable ways the impact that HUD's programs and
the housing and urban development-related programs of other Federal
Departments and agencies have on housing opportunities by focusing
Federal resources on promoting greater housing choice.
This objective is the key to the impact that HUD's housing and
urban development programs will have on the success or failure
of HUD's entire Strategic Plan. The extent to which HUD succeeds
in any of its other strategic objectives will depend directly
upon the degree to which it succeeds in its more focussed and
coordinated approach to creating greater housing mobility and
choice for all, especially lower income and minority families.
Without such opportunities, the Department will be unable either
to provide a continuum of housing and services to assist homeless
individuals and families or to increase the availability of affordable
housing to low-income and minority families to reduce their isolation.
Failure to achieve greater housing mobility and choice will also
make impossible the empowerment and self-sufficiency of low-income
individuals and families needing desperately to make the transition
from welfare to work. This will also mean confining whatever
homeownership opportunities they may have to the urban core where
good jobs are scarce.
While HUD's programs have included civil rights related requirements
for many years in its effort to meet its responsibility under
the Fair Housing Act to affirmatively further fair housing in
HUD programs, few meaningful measures exist to determine if these
requirements have been effective and the extent to which they
have achieved the desired result. This strategy component will
seek to identify meaningful indicators of equal housing opportunity
in each of HUD's program areas and to develop systems to measure
their status. Data baselines will be sought for each program
and progress will be measured at regular intervals through stronger
internal HUD cooperation and sharing of existing data among HUD
program areas. These should become cross-cutting performance
measures and should be used to replicate program requirements
where success is achieved and to examine the process and the substance
of requirements where meaningful progress does not result.
Such indicators may include levels of segregation in HUD assisted
housing and communities, existence of accessible and visitable
units and other indicators developed with HUD program areas to
measure the outcomes which demonstrate the extent to which their
programs are providing housing choice.
FHEO will also forge new and stronger external partnerships with
other Federal Departments and agencies, sharing and using existing
data sources to the greatest extent possible and using the other
Federal resources to increase the impact of fair housing requirements.
Executive Order 12892 directs the Secretary of HUD to create
and chair the President's Fair Housing Council, providing HUD
with a vehicle to lead and partner with other key domestic departments
to develop and deploy a more broad-based and comprehensive strategy
for affirmatively furthering fair housing.
Partner with "stakeholders" in the chosen communities
to seek and expand upon areas of common ground and shared interests
in working toward the goals of equal housing opportunity and open
communities.
FHEO will seek partnerships with civil rights, disability advocacy
organizations, private fair housing groups; community-based institutions
such as churches, temples, and neighborhood associations; housing
industry groups such as mortgage lenders, property insurance providers,
sales and rental housing-related associations and building code
organizations; and State and local Government agencies such as
real estate licensing agencies, social service agencies, and civil
rights enforcement agencies, state attorneys general; even those
having a stake in the outcomes FHEO seeks.
Where the potential outcomes are perceived positively, FHEO will
work with those stakeholders to facilitate their involvement in
achieving them. Where the outcomes are viewed with fear and suspicion,
FHEO will seek through dialog and outreach to alter perceptions
in a more positive and constructive direction.
Partner with HUD recipients and other housing-related public
and private organizations to promote open communities.
FHEO will partner with a selected number of housing-related organizations
and providers in the communities chosen in Component I above to
include model partnerships that demonstrate successful joint efforts
to reduce discriminatory practices and promote open communities.
This component is aimed at establishing a positive, facilitator-like
relationship with the selected entities, through which HUD will
be a cooperating partner in developing a shared model that can
be applied in relationships with similar entities. A range of
recipients (private developers, assisted housing managers, PHAs,
etc) will be selected. Hallmarks of this partnership will be
education, outreach, voluntary programs, best practices, technical
assistance, etc., aimed at achieving pre-determined fair housing
objectives that can be measured. For example, HUD could work
with private multi-family providers to develop improved outreach
and marketing approaches; to employ screening techniques that
meet requirements of Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities
Act to assure better matching of accessible units with persons
with physical disabilities, to develop technical assistance materials
which can be used nationally, etc. Successful results can be
promoted by the partners to others in the same class.
FHEO will work closely with PIH to provide PHAs with additional
flexibility and technical support in the chosen communities for
demolition, modernization, vacancy consolidation and establishing
site-based waiting lists and ceiling rents.
FHEO will work closely with FHA to provide greater flexibility
and "workout" options for private owners and managers
of "troubled" multifamily housing developments in the
chosen communities to return them to decent, safe and sanitary
conditions at affordable rents and increase their participation
in Section 8 and regional opportunity counseling programs.
Program Evaluation
Twice in recent years, HUD has conducted major assessments of
housing discrimination. These identify the basic outlines of
the nature and extent of housing discrimination in America. HUD
anticipates beginning another such study soon. Also related to
this objective is a recent evaluation of the Fair Housing Initiatives
Program (FHIP). The Department has underway two important studies
of the effects of assisted housing on neighborhood conditions
and has recently completed an assessment of scattered site housing.
Other related studies are on the characteristics of neighborhoods
with Section 8 recipients, public housing projects, and HOME program
developments. Additionally, HUD has just begun an assessment
of the effects of public housing litigation settlements on racial
deconcentration. Other recent related projects studied the characteristics
of neighborhoods with Section 8 recipients, public housing projects,
and HOME program developments.
Linkage to HUD 2020: Management Reform Plan
FHEO faces challenges in fragmented responsibilities and lack
of accountability; duplication of Field Office oversight functions;
inefficient separation of staff resources between enforcement
and program/compliance; and inadequate use of technology.
To overcome these problems, FHEO will eliminate the separation
between enforcement and program/compliance functions; cross-train
staff, consolidate Field Office oversight and policy functions;
integrate fair housing principles through HUD's other program
areas; create mechanism to assure coordinated development and
dissemination of uniform FHEO policy, regulations and public information;
and make greater use of other area's technology.
Specifically, FHEO will consolidate existing organizations and
employees and contract where appropriate with outside investigators,
auditors and attorneys. Community Resource Representatives (See
also Objective #1) will be trained in fair housing laws, issues
surrounding Section 8 recipients, and other pertinent fair housing
issues. A process will be established to ensure that fair housing
compliance is included in assessing PHAs. Section 3 will be moved
from FHEO to the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization,
to take advantage of greater expertise in economic development
and procurement.
To streamline existing front-end reviews, other program areas
will expand their current application procedures to include routine
front end-reviews now performed by FHEO for the Comprehensive
Improvement Assistance Program, Family Self-Sufficiency, Comprehensive
Grant Program, Multifamily Development Programs, Section 108 Loan
Guarantees and Annual Action Plans.
External Factors
A key underlying factor over which HUD has little influence is
simply the nature and extent of discrimination in the society.
Conceivably, Americans will become more accepting of people who
are different and discrimination will diminish. It is, however,
equally conceivable that discrimination will increase or become
a policy issue in different aspects of American life. In either
case, the result will be important and would be largely out of
HUD's control.
Broad economic factors undoubtedly are also key. Vigorous, sustained
economic growth should provide opportunities for minorities and
women to succeed. With greater economic success among disadvantaged
groups, one would expect greater integration in other aspects
of society. Conversely, economic decline likely will result in
greater social rigidity.
The education system and its results are important external factors.
Where segregated schools result in different levels of achievement
by people of different ethnicities, it is more difficult to achieve
integration in other aspects of society.
How annual performance goals support the achievement of this
objective
This comprehensive, targeted approach to combating housing discrimination
will result in a level of effectiveness that will have a measurable
impact on reducing discriminatory practices. The measures of effectiveness
of concentrating FHEO program resources in a selected number of
communities will allow us to determine the steps necessary to
carry out the larger strategy on a National basis. The performance
goals provide the blueprint for FHEO to partner with fair housing
groups, housing providers, and local governments for the most
effective use of resources. Our work with other areas of HUD
and local communities to eliminate impediments identified through
the Analysis of Impediments, combined with collaborative initiatives
with other Federal agencies will allow FHEO to steadily increase
its effectiveness. The successful outcomes from these targeted
activities will provide the base from which FHEO expands its efforts
to additional communities in the future. See Appendix I for specific
performance measures.