President Trump is defending his administration’s recent decision to rescind an Obama-Biden administration rule on fair housing, arguing that the move would protect property values in the suburbs.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, the commander-in-chief stood firm on the move to get rid of the Fair Housing Affirmatively Promoting Provision of the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
The provision was updated by the previous administration in 2015 to allow the federal government to withhold federal funds if you are not satisfied with the work of a state or local government to document and prevent racial prejudice in the home.
“I am pleased to inform all people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that they will no longer be bothered or financially disadvantaged by the construction of low-income housing in their neighborhood,” Trump wrote in the first message.
“Your home prices will go up according to the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH rule. Enjoy! “He continued.
The tweets come less than a week after Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Ben Carson announced the administration’s decision to repeal the rule, arguing it was “complicated, expensive, and ineffective.”
“After reviewing thousands of comments on the proposed changes to the Affirmatively Fair Housing Promotion (AFFH) regulation, we found it unfeasible and, ultimately, a waste of time for localities to comply, which is often results in funds being diverted from the communities that need them the most.
“Instead, the Trump Administration has established programs like Opportunity Zones that are generating billions of dollars of capital in underserved communities where affordable housing exists, but opportunity is not,” Carson said in a statement revealing the move.
The administration is replacing AFFH with the Community Preservation and Neighborhood Choice rule, which Carson said will offer the state and local government the benefit of the doubt to maintain fair housing practices.
“This new rule … defines fair housing in general terms, it means housing that, among other attributes, is affordable, safe, decent, free from illegal discrimination and accessible under civil rights laws. It then defines ‘affirmatively promote fair housing’ to mean any action rationally related to promoting any of the above attributes of fair housing, ”reads the statement by the HUD secretary.
The president has referred to “the suburbs” several times in the past week, arguing that they need protection in some way.
Last Thursday, she joined an opinion piece in the Post criticizing Biden’s housing plan and tweeted: “Suburban housewives in the United States should read this article. Biden will destroy your neighborhood and your American dream. I will preserve it and make it even better!
Speaking on a television Tuesday, Trump warned attendees of the event that a President Biden would “abolish” the suburbs.
“They want to abolish, and really hurt, the suburbs, because under their plan … they don’t care if low-income housing is built … in a beautiful suburb,” the president warned.
“This has been happening for years. Obama made it much worse. And now they want Cory Booker to run that program, Cory Booker of New Jersey to run that program and do it many times worse than it is now,” he continued.
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