At EBHO, our work to expand affordable housing for low-income people in the East Bay is always intertwined with racial justice and the rights of immigrants - which means the homes we advocate for are always informed by federal housing policy. Federal housing policy impacts funding, how racial equity is measured and enforced, and what rules govern publicly funded benefits such as Section 8 and housing authority run housing. In recent months, the federal administration has implemented a number of policy changes that are poised to harm people of color and immigrants in our communities and weaken rules developed to increase racial equity in housing. Below are three opportunities for you to take action to try to stop and reduce the harm caused by these decisions. In particular, we ask our members that are developers of Affordable Housing to submit letters documenting how changes to Fair Housing and Community Reinvestment Act will impact your work and the communities you serve.

Keep the Fair Housing Act Accountable

The Fair Housing Act was created to ensure local governments proactively acted to undo patterns of racial segregation and other types of discrimination, fostering communities where Black, white, and brown residents could all benefit from the best of what a community had to offer. However, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a proposal to reverse a landmark 2015 regulation providing jurisdictions and public housing authorities guidance and tools to identify and address harmful patterns of segregation, discriminatory practices, and disinvestment. 

Click below to submit a public comment telling HUD why affirmatively furthering Fair Housing is necessary for our communities. Share details of how racial discrimination, segregation, and disability discrimination impacts your community or how affirming the Fair Housing Act intersects with your organization's mission. It will create a powerful record of what is at stake if HUD allows discrimination to expand. 

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Preserve the Equity Rules In The CRA

The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) (1977) was created to remedy the fact that, without regulation, banks took deposits from people of color, but wouldn’t make fair, affordable, and community-serving loans in the neighborhoods where those customers lived. Redlining is one example of how these discriminatory practices. This took assets from people in Black and brown segregated neighborhoods to underwrite mortgages and other loans in predominately white segregated communities, creating stark wealth inequality. The median white family now has 10 and 7 times the wealth of the median Black and Latinx family, respectively. The CRA requires banks with branches in low-and-moderate income communities to re-invest capital back into these neighborhoods; investing in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC) is one way banks meet this obligation.

Under Trump, however, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) are trying to ram through new rules that’d reverse these critical gains. Turning the CRA from a tool to combat redlining into one that exacerbates it is unacceptable. Rather than retreat from Civil Rights, CRA reform should go further to repair our nation’s historic and ongoing inequities. Submit a letter now on behalf of your organization telling the FDIC and Comptroller of Currency why the Community Reinvestment Act should be strengthened, not gutted.  

 

Mitigate the Public Charge Rule

In January the Supreme Court gave the green light for Trump's Department of Homeland Security to move forward with a new "public charge rule." When this rule is implemented on February 24th, families will be forced to choose between a path to a stable future in the U.S. with a Green Card or the housing and food support they might need to to survive during a tough time. 

Most people agree that feeding and housing our neighbors is a great investment in a healthy community. The public charge rule will disrupt food and housing support available to children that need it, many of whom are U.S. citizens with at least one immigrant parent, because getting the help children need could put their parents' ability to stay with their families at risk. The new rule will increase the poverty gap between immigrant families from poorer countries and those from wealthier countries. Immigrants and their families should be able to build safe, stable futures with help from their communities when they need it. Click below to send a message to your representative and ask them to move forward with legislation that will reduce the harmful impacts of the public charge rule. Click here for legal support numbers and information on what supports fall under the rule.  

If you have questions about these proposed rules and how best to submit public comment, please email our Policy Associate, Alex Werth, at alex@ebho.org. Thank you for taking action for a vibrant, connected community. 

- Rev. Sophia DeWitt, Program Director at East Bay Housing Organizations

 
 
 
 

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staff@ebho.org | 510-663-3830

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