1 / 77

R ELMAN, D ANE & C OLFAX PLLC W ASHINGTON , DC, (202)728-1888

R ELMAN, D ANE & C OLFAX PLLC W ASHINGTON , DC, (202)728-1888. CHANGES IN THE AFFH APPROACH—NEW FOCUS ON SEGREGATION AND CHOICE. Presented by Sara Pratt RELMAN,DANE & COLFAX 1225 19 th Street, NW Washington DC 20036. Attorney-Client Privileged/Confidential.

jimbo
Download Presentation

R ELMAN, D ANE & C OLFAX PLLC W ASHINGTON , DC, (202)728-1888

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. RELMAN, DANE & COLFAX PLLC WASHINGTON, DC, (202)728-1888 CHANGES IN THE AFFH APPROACH—NEW FOCUS ON SEGREGATION AND CHOICE Presented by Sara Pratt RELMAN,DANE & COLFAX 1225 19th Street, NW Washington DC 20036 Attorney-Client Privileged/Confidential

  2. AFFIRMATIVELY FURTHERING FAIR HOUSING-CHANGE IS COMING • HUD’S new rule was published on July 16, 2015 • https://www.huduser.gov/portal/affht_pt.html#final-rule • New Assessment of Fair Housing (“Assessment” or “AFH”) templates replacing old Analysis of Impediments • Updated jurisdiction template published August 23, 2016 • Updated state template published September 28, 2016 • Public Housing Agency template published September 20, 2016 • New Guidebook to the AFH published December 2015 • https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/4866/affh-rule-guidebook/ • New Data and Mapping Tool now available for jurisdictions • https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/4867/affh-data-and-mapping-tool/

  3. AFFIRMATIVELY FURTHERING FAIR HOUSING • Affirmatively furthering fair housingmeans: [T]aking meaningful actions, in addition to combating discrimination, that overcome patterns of segregation and foster inclusive communities free from barriers that restrict access to opportunity based on protected characteristics

  4. AFFIRMATIVELY FURTHERING FAIR HOUSING • Specifically, affirmatively furthering fair housing means taking meaningful actions that, taken together, address significant disparities in housing needs and in access to opportunity, replacing segregated living patterns with truly integrated and balanced living patterns, transforming racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty into areas of opportunity, and fostering and maintaining compliance with civil rights and fair housing laws. • The duty to affirmatively further fair housing extends to all of a program participant’s activities and programs relating to housing and urban development, not just federally funded programs.

  5. THE FOCUS • The rule identifies categories of analysis that contain fair housing issues that program participants will assess: • Patterns of integration and segregation • Racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty • Disparities in access to opportunity • Disproportionate housing needs • Publicly supported housing analysis • Disability and access analysis • Fair housing resources

  6. New Assessment Guides Fair Housing Planning Process • The Assessment process is like an outline of issues that includes maps, tables of data, questions and prompts asking a grantee to analyze information that is important to address various aspects of fair housing in communities • It is substantive and specific • A failure to submit an acceptable Assessment can result in loss of funding; an Assessment that is ‘‘materially inconsistent with the data and other evidence available to the jurisdiction’’ or ‘‘substantially incomplete’’ will be rejected.

  7. What is Covered by the Assessment? • “Program Participants” • Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) grantees • At least 70% of funds to benefit low and moderate income persons • Activities must meet national objectives • benefit low- and moderate-income persons • prevent or eliminate slums or blight • Address community development needs having a particular urgency

  8. Covered CDBG Programs • States • States receive money and disburse it directly or through grants to units of local government • Entitlement jurisdictions (about 1160 total) • Generally over 50,000 in population • CDBG Colonias Set-Aside Program (up to 10% of state funds in CA) • CDBG Disaster Recovery Program • Neighborhood Stabilization Program and others

  9. Other CDBG Programs-HOME • HOME (HOME Investment Partnerships Program) • Funds a wide range of activities including building, buying, and/or rehabilitating affordable housing for rent or homeownership or providing direct rental assistance to low-income people • Funds are distributed through states

  10. Other CDBG Programs-ESG • Emergency Solutions Grants provide funding to: • Engage homeless individuals and families living on the street; • Improve the number and quality of emergency shelters for homeless individuals and families; • Help operate these shelters; • Provide essential services to shelter residents; • Rapidly re-house homeless individuals and families; and • Prevent families and individuals from becoming homeless.

  11. Other CDBG Programs-HOPWA • HUD makes grants to local communities, states, and nonprofit organizations for projects that benefit low-income persons living with HIV/AIDS and their families

  12. Public Housing Agencies and Voucher Programs • Public Housing Agencies and Voucher Programs (HCVs or Section 8) are included in the Assessment process • Public housing and voucher programs provide decent and safe affordable housing for eligible low-income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. Public housing comes in all sizes and types, from scattered single family houses to high rise apartments for elderly families.

  13. Public Housing Agencies and Section 8 Programs • Many public housing agencies and Section 8 programs are encouraged to participate either with a State in its Assessment or with a jurisdiction in its Assessment • Public housing agencies (and their Section 8 programs) may, however, submit independently

  14. Use of Tax Credits and Other non-HUD Funds are Included in the Assessment • Program participants, including States, will be required in the Assessment to analyze data on the location and occupancy of affordable LIHTC units and to consider the impact of a QAP on fair housing issues in their jurisdiction. • Use of other funds for housing, transportation, infrastructure may play a role and should be considered

  15. Regional Approaches • Assessment requires consultation with local and regional government agencies with metropolitan-wide planning and transportation responsibilities. • Groups of jurisdictions/PHAs may join and produce a regional assessment • A lead entity is responsible for overseeing the submission of a regional Assessment and obtaining the express consent of all other participants • A regional Assessment must include goals for each participating entity

  16. CDBG Programs and Consolidated Plans • The issues identified in an Assessment lead to goals, which then lead to strategies and actions to overcome what HUD describes as “contributing factors” that are included in consolidated plans and PHA plans. • The “strategies and actions” should also relate to promoting fair housing choice and increasing access to opportunity and reinvesting through neighborhood revitalization. • “Balanced approach” • HUD will monitor the strategies and actions through annual action plan and CAPER (Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report) reports

  17. Timing of an Assessment • The initial Assessment is due 270 days (9 months) before a jurisdiction’s Consolidated Plan is due; planning for the Assessment process should likely start 9-12 months before its due date and 18 to 24 months before the Consolidated Plan is due • For a regional Assessment, the due date is tied to the due date of the lead jurisdiction. • For most PHAs submitting alone the Assessment is due 270 days before the end of the PHA’s fiscal year that begins on or after January 1, 2018 and when a new 5-year plan is due

  18. Required Community Participation Process • HUD’s rule contains robust community participation provisions; a failure to meet them may result in rejection of an Assessment by HUD • CDBG entitlements should update existing citizen participation plans BEFORE beginning the community engagement process • Standard is reaching the broadest audience • Post on the internet and in public places • Make accessible and available in language as necessary • Consider Chinese or Spanish option in Pittsburgh

  19. Community Participation Process • Community participation must involve a robust group of interested groups • Especially those who have been historically under-represented, including racial and ethnicity minorities, people with limited English, and people with disabilities • Key process steps • Make data available to the public and agencies • Publish the proposed Assessment and accept comments • Have at least one public hearing • Provide at least thirty days to receive comments

  20. Community Participation Plan • A Community Participation Plan must: • Include procedures for assessing its language needs and identify any need for translation of notices and other vital documents so there can be meaningful access to participation by non-English speaking persons. • Must include provisions for hearings being held at a time and accessible locations convenient to potential and actual beneficiaries and provide interpreters if requested • Must describe how the community will provide materials and accommodations for persons with disabilities, including on the agency website.

  21. Community Participation: Assessment • Assessment must include • A summary of the process and efforts to broaden community participation • A summary of comments and recommendations made • Summary of comments or recommendations not accepted with the reasons for not accepting them • Absence of one or more of these can result in rejection of the Assessment as incomplete • Advocates will document recommendations and Assessment must consider them and provide a justification if they are not accepted

  22. The Assessment and HUD-Funded Programs • In the Assessment, states, jurisdictions and public housing agencies: • Identify fair housing issues and significant contributing factors; • Prioritize contributing factors, giving highest priority to those factors that limit or deny fair housing choice or access to opportunity or negatively impact fair housing or civil rights compliance; • Justify the prioritization of contributing factors • Set priorities and goals to address the identified contributing factors and related fair housing issues.

  23. Fair Housing Issues in the Assessment • What are the fair housing issues? • Patterns of integration and segregation • Racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty • Disparities in access to opportunity • Disproportionate housing needs • Publicly supported housing analysis • Disability and access analysis • Fair housing resources, enforcement and education

  24. Use of HUD Data and Maps • HUD has provided maps and tables of data for grantees to use in their Assessments • Data • There are seventeen tables of data; some contain data at the jurisdiction level and some also include region-wide data • Maps • There are twelve types of maps and each may be run at the local, regional or state level

  25. Data and Maps Describe Demographics • Map and Tables: Current Snapshot • Map and Tables: Trends over 30 years

  26. HUD Data – Demographics for Pittsburgh

  27. Pittsburgh: Demographic Trends, 1990-2010

  28. Segregation • Segregation • “Segregation” “means a condition…in which there is a high concentration of persons of a particular race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, or having a disability or a type of disability in a particular geographic area when compared to a broader geographic area.” 24 C.F.R. § 5.152 • “Integration” “means a condition…in which there is not a high concentration of persons of a particular race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, or having a disability or a type of disability in a particular geographic area when compared to a broader geographic area.”

  29. Data and Maps Describe Segregation • Map: Race and National Origin Snapshot • Map: Race and National Origin Trends • Map: National Origin Snapshot • Map: LEP Populations • Table: Dissimilarity Index

  30. Pittsburgh: Segregation by Race and Ethnicity-2010

  31. Segregation and R/ECAP Analysis • The Assessment considers both areas of segregation and R/ECAPs • R/ECAPs • A “racially or ethnically concentrated area of poverty” is “a geographic area with significant concentrations of poverty and minority concentrations” • A large body of research has consistently found that the problems associated with segregation are greatly exacerbated when combined with concentrated poverty. Neighborhoods of concentrated poverty may isolate residents from the resources and networks they need

  32. Assessment Questions • Here are some of the questions that the Assessment asks about this data: • Identify neighborhoods or areas in the Jurisdiction and Region where racial/ethnic groups are segregated and indicate the predominant groups for each. • Describe the extent to which R/ECAP tracts are grouped together or scattered. Identify any groupings of R/ECAP tracts within the jurisdiction. • For each identified R/ECAP neighborhood or area, describe the relevant characteristics that set it apart from non-R/ECAPs, including patterns of financial investment, transportation and other basic services, infrastructure, health and safety conditions and geographic isolation.

  33. Assessment Questions • Here are some more of the questions that the Assessment asks about this data: • Which groups (race, national origin, families with children) are disproportionately represented in R/ECAPs compared to the Jurisdiction and Region? • What populations of limited English proficient persons reside in the Jurisdiction and Region, which languages do they speak, and where are they located?

  34. Contributing Factors Affecting Patterns of Segregation • Assessment asks to what extent these factors affect the patterns of segregation: • Land use and zoning laws • Occupancy restrictions • Residential real estate steering • Patterns of community opposition • Economic pressures, such as increased rents, land/development costs • Major private investments • Municipal or State services and amenities • Foreclosure patterns • And…

  35. Contributing Factors Affecting Patterns of R/ECAPs • Assessment asks to what extent these factors affect the patterns of R/ECAPS: • Community opposition • Deteriorated and abandoned properties • Displacement of residents due to economic pressures • Lack of community revitalization strategies • Lack of private investments in specific neighborhoods • Lack of public investments in specific neighborhoods, including services or amenities • Lack of regional cooperation • Land use and zoning laws • Location and type of affordable housing • Occupancy codes and restrictions • Private discrimination

  36. Disparities in Access to Opportunity • Access to Opportunity • “Significant disparities in access to opportunity” are “substantial and measurable differences in access to educational, transportation, economic, and other opportunities in a community based on protected class related to housing.”

  37. Access to Opportunity • The Assessment considers disparities in • Access to education • Access to employment • Access to transportation • Disparities to ability to live in low poverty areas and environmentally healthy neighborhoods, as well as any overarching patterns relating to access to opportunity in the jurisdiction and region

  38. Data and Maps Describe Access to Opportunity • Map: Demographics and school proficiency in area including R/ECAPS • Map: Demographics and job proximity in area including R/ECAPS • Map: Demographics and labor market data in area including R/ECAPS • Map: Demographics and transit trips map for area including R/ECAPS • Map: Demographics and low transportation costs for area including R/ECAPS • Map: Demographics and poverty in area including R/ECAPS • Map: Demographics and environmental health in area including R/ECAPS • Table: All opportunity indicators by race and ethnicity

  39. Pittsburgh: Table of Opportunity Indicators by Race/Ethnicity

  40. Contributing Factors to Disparities in Access to Opportunity • Assessment asks to what extent these factors contribute to disparities in access to opportunity • Access to financial services • The availability, type, frequency, and reliability of public transportation • Lack of private investments in specific neighborhoods • Lack of public investments in specific neighborhoods, including services or amenities • Lack of regional cooperation • Land use and zoning laws • Lending Discrimination • Location of employers • Location of environmental health hazards • Location of proficient schools and school assignment policies • Location and type of affordable housing • Occupancy codes and restrictions, private discrimination

  41. Disproportionate Housing Needs • Disproportionate Housing Needs • “Disproportionate housing needs” are “a condition in which there are significant disparities in the proportion of members of a protected class experiencing a category of housing needs when compared to the proportion of members of any other relevant groups or the total population experiencing that category of housing need in the applicable geographic area.”

  42. Data and Maps Describe Disproportionate Housing Needs • Map: Housing Burden by Race/Ethnicity showing area and R/ECAPs • Map: Housing Burden by National Origin showing area and R/ECAPs • Table: Demographics of Households with Disproportionate Housing Needs • Table: Demographics of Households with Severe Housing Cost Burden

  43. Pittsburgh: Housing Burden by Race/Ethnicity

  44. Pittsburgh: Demographics of Disproportionate Housing Needs

  45. Typical Prompts in Disproportionate Housing Needs Analysis • Which groups (by race/ethnicity and family status) experience higher rates of housing cost burden, overcrowding, or substandard housing when compared to other groups? • What areas in the jurisdiction experience disproportionate housing needs and how do they align with patterns of segregation? • What are the needs of needs of families with children for housing units with two or three or more bedrooms in comparison to the available existing housing stock in each category of publicly supported housing?

  46. Contributing Factors to Disproportionate Housing Needs • Contributing factors to disproportionate housing needs are: • The availability of affordable units in a range of sizes • Displacement of residents due to economic pressures • Lack of private investments in specific neighborhoods • Lack of public investments in specific neighborhoods, including services or amenities • Land use and zoning laws • Lending discrimination • Other

  47. Publicly Supported Housing Analysis • Publicly Supported Housing Analysis • “ Publicly supported housing” is housing assisted with funding through federal, State, or local agencies or programs as well as housing that is financed or administered by or through any such agencies or programs. • Are there fair housing issues with the placement or occupancy of publicly supported housing? • HUD provides data on: • Public Housing • Project-Based Section 8 • Other HUD multifamily housing (includes both Section 202—Supportive Housing for the Elderly and Section 811—Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities) • Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) housing • Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV)

  48. Data and Maps Describe Publicly Supported Housing • Map: Publicly Supported Housing and Race/Ethnicity • Map: Housing Choice Vouchers and Race/Ethnicity • Table: Number of Publicly Supported Housing Units by Program Category • Table: Publicly Supported Housing Residents by Race/Ethnicity • Table: R/ECAP and Non-R/ECAP Demographics by Publicly Supported Housing Program Category • Table: Demographics of Publicly Supported Housing Developments by Program Category: race, national origin and families with children

  49. Pittsburgh: Public Housing and Segregation

  50. Pittsburgh: Demographics of Publicly Supported Housing

More Related