“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 I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule.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, referring to Obama-era politics.
The Affirmatively Promote Fair Housing rule of 2015 requires local governments to proactively secure fair housing to receive federal housing funds. It was designed to give more importance to the Fair Housing Act in the fight against segregation and was praised by civil rights groups at the time.
But conservative critics and the Trump administration denounced the parameters as unnecessarily laborious. The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced last week a replacement policy that essentially allows localities to self-certify that housing is affordable and free from discrimination, a significant reduction from the Obama-era rule.
“After reviewing thousands of comments on the proposed changes to the [AFFH] according to the regulation, we find it unfeasible and, ultimately, a waste of time for localities to comply, which often results in funds being diverted from the communities that need them the most, ”said the secretary of HUD Ben Carson last week.
The divide between urban and suburban America is closely linked to the country’s segregation history. Even long after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, numerous studies and reports have revealed policies that have kept blacks out of the white suburbs and other forms of housing discrimination. The connection between Trump’s sprinkling on low-income housing in the suburbs and racial segregation was not lost on his critics.
“Oh my. I mean, it’s not even a dog whistle anymore,” Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) Wrote on Twitter. “Our president is now a proud and vocal segregationist.”
Former Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro, who served as HUD secretary under Obama when the 2015 AFFH rule was created, also responded to Trump, tweeting: “Just because people are poor doesn’t mean they are bad. That is obvious to most, but not to fans like “Trump.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Trump’s tweets “unpleasant” and said the president “is actively working to disembowel fair housing laws and legalize housing discrimination.”
“ALL Americans deserve to have access to the American Dream. We will fight this, “Schumer wrote on Twitter.
Adrianne Todman, CEO of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, said in a statement to POLITICO on Wednesday that Trump’s comments were a profound insult to those who live, work and build low-income housing. She emphasized that those who live in low-income housing offer valuable contributions to all communities.
“If you are a person of modest means, know that your value is not derived from how much money you make, but from who you are,” Todman said.
Trump has been paying more attention to the suburbs ahead of the November presidential election, portraying rival Democratic candidate Joe Biden as hostile to the suburbs. He accused Biden and other Democrats of trying to “abolish” the suburbs and tweeted Thursday in “The Suburban Housewives of America” that “Biden will destroy his neighborhood and his American dream. I will preserve it and make it even better!”
Still, Trump’s call to the suburbs doesn’t appear to be increasing his appeal. Polls have Trump behind Biden in the suburbs by big margins, and suburban areas led Democrats to a majority in the House in 2018.
