国产伦理

国产伦理 Expert: Strike 鈥楽mall Bigot Exemption鈥 from Fair Housing Law


By paul owers | 8/4/2020

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development聽(HUD) said it is replacing a 5-year-old regulation from the Obama Administration designed to promote affordable housing, but more meaningful change would occur with the elimination of a key exemption in the federal Fair Housing Act, said , Ph.D., an economist in 国产伦理鈥檚 .

Under a loophole in the 1968 law, single-family homeowners can effectively discriminate if they sell or rent their properties without hiring real estate brokers, do not use discriminatory advertising, and own no more than three such properties. The exemption essentially allows discrimination by people who can avoid using brokers and therefore sidestep renting or selling to certain groups, according to Johnson.

鈥淚 call it the 鈥榮mall bigot exemption鈥 because it allows individual homeowners to discriminate and put pressure on their neighbors to do the same,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t slows down access to housing for all.鈥

Johnson believes the issue of fair housing has disintegrated into political posturing by both Democrats and Republicans, missing an opportunity to make real, positive change.

Obama鈥檚 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing of 2015, a provision of the Fair Housing Act, was meant to encourage more affordable housing, but that could have hurt upscale communities that insisted affordably priced properties would torpedo property values, according to . But the website said the Trump Administration watered down the regulation in 2018 before announcing July 23 that it would end it.

HUD Secretary Ben Carson called the regulation 鈥渦nworkable and ultimately a waste of time for localities.鈥 Instead, HUD announced a new rule, Preserving Community and Neighborhood Choice, which 鈥渄efines housing broadly to mean housing that, among other attributes, is affordable, safe, decent, free of unlawful discrimination, and accessible under civil rights laws.鈥

Whereas the Obama Administration rule passed on expenses for federal oversight to local entities, the Trump Administration prefers local oversight with loose federal attention paid to the purpose of the Fair Housing Act, Johnson said.

Yet, both administrations and their predecessors have left in place the 鈥渟mall bigot exemption,鈥 missing the opportunity to fundamentally improve fair housing, Johnson believes. If homes are sold to qualified buyers without regard to race, gender, age and other protected classes, people will live where they want and can afford, helping to integrate neighborhoods across the country, he noted.

鈥淚f either party wants to impress me, they would legislate for the abolishment of this exemption,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t is a very easy target. It is my opinion that the removal of this would do more to promote true fair housing than what either the Obama or Trump administrations have done so far.鈥

-国产伦理-