FY 1999 Annual Performance Plan

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, its new strategy for promoting equal housing opportunity must focus all discretionary elements of the fair housing program (human, financial and material resources) more effectively and measure their impact more precisely than before.

This strategy, a significant departure from previous approaches, is designed to respond to the challenges of the Results Act, maximize the effective use of the new FHEO structure, and make use of the HUD management reforms. It will 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.

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.

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 in all of the ten field offices 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.

The full range of FHEO enforcement, compliance and program activities 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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Annual Performance Goals

A 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 selected communities allows us to determine the steps necessary to carry out the larger strategy on a national basis. The successful outcomes from these targeted activities will provide the base from which FHEO can expand its efforts to additional communities in the future.

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