Redressing Our Nation's and the Federal Government's History of Discriminatory Housing Practices and Policies, 7487-7489 [2021-02074]

Agencies

• Executive Office of the President

[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 18 (Friday, January 29, 2021)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 7487-7489]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-02074]




                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 18 / Friday, January 29, 2021 / 
Presidential Documents

[[Page 7487]]


                Memorandum of January 26, 2021

                
Redressing Our Nation's and the Federal 
                Government's History of Discriminatory Housing 
                Practices and Policies

                Memorandum for the Secretary of Housing and Urban 
                Development

                By the authority vested in me as President by the 
                Constitution and the laws of the United States of 
                America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

                Section 1. Background and Policy. Diverse and inclusive 
                communities strengthen our democracy. But our Nation's 
                history has been one of great struggle toward this 
                ideal. During the 20th century, Federal, State, and 
                local governments systematically implemented racially 
                discriminatory housing policies that contributed to 
                segregated neighborhoods and inhibited equal 
                opportunity and the chance to build wealth for Black, 
                Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and Native 
                American families, and other underserved communities. 
                Ongoing legacies of residential segregation and 
                discrimination remain ever-present in our society. 
                These include a racial gap in homeownership; a 
                persistent undervaluation of properties owned by 
                families of color; a disproportionate burden of 
                pollution and exposure to the impacts of climate change 
                in communities of color; and systemic barriers to safe, 
                accessible, and affordable housing for people of color, 
                immigrants, individuals with disabilities, and lesbian, 
                gay, bisexual, transgender, gender non-conforming, and 
                queer (LGBTQ+) individuals.

                Throughout much of the 20th century, the Federal 
                Government systematically supported discrimination and 
                exclusion in housing and mortgage lending. While many 
                of the Federal Government's housing policies and 
                programs expanded homeownership across the country, 
                many knowingly excluded Black people and other persons 
                of color, and promoted and reinforced housing 
                segregation. Federal policies contributed to mortgage 
                redlining and lending discrimination against persons of 
                color.

                The creation of the Interstate Highway System, funded 
                and constructed by the Federal Government and State 
                governments in the 20th century, disproportionately 
                burdened many historically Black and low-income 
                neighborhoods in many American cities. Many urban 
                interstate highways were deliberately built to pass 
                through Black neighborhoods, often requiring the 
                destruction of housing and other local institutions. To 
                this day, many Black neighborhoods are disconnected 
                from access to high-quality housing, jobs, public 
                transit, and other resources.

                The Federal Government must recognize and acknowledge 
                its role in systematically declining to invest in 
                communities of color and preventing residents of those 
                communities from accessing the same services and 
                resources as their white counterparts. The effects of 
                these policy decisions continue to be felt today, as 
                racial inequality still permeates land-use patterns in 
                most U.S. cities and virtually all aspects of housing 
                markets.

                The Congress enacted the Fair Housing Act more than 50 
                years ago to lift barriers that created separate and 
                unequal neighborhoods on the basis of race, ethnicity, 
                and national origin. Since then, however, access to 
                housing and the creation of wealth through 
                homeownership have remained persistently unequal in the 
                United States. Many neighborhoods are as racially 
                segregated today as they were in the middle of the 20th 
                century. People of color are overrepresented among 
                those experiencing homelessness. In addition, people of 
                color disproportionately bear the burdens of exposure

[[Page 7488]]

                to air and water pollution, and growing risks of 
                housing instability from climate crises like extreme 
                heat, flooding, and wildfires. And the racial wealth 
                gap is wider than it was when the Fair Housing Act was 
                enacted, driven in part by persistent disparities in 
                access to homeownership. Although Federal fair housing 
                laws were expanded to include protections for 
                individuals with disabilities, a lack of access to 
                affordable and integrated living options remains a 
                significant problem.

                The Federal Government has a critical role to play in 
                overcoming and redressing this history of 
                discrimination and in protecting against other forms of 
                discrimination by applying and enforcing Federal civil 
                rights and fair housing laws. It can help ensure that 
                fair and equal access to housing opportunity exists for 
                all throughout the United States. This goal is 
                consistent with the Fair Housing Act, which imposes on 
                Federal departments and agencies the duty to 
                ``administer their programs and activities relating to 
                housing and urban development . . . in a manner 
                affirmatively to further'' fair housing (42 U.S.C. 
                3608(d)). This is not only a mandate to refrain from 
                discrimination but a mandate to take actions that undo 
                historic patterns of segregation and other types of 
                discrimination and that afford access to long-denied 
                opportunities.

                Accordingly, it is the policy of my Administration that 
                the Federal Government shall work with communities to 
                end housing discrimination, to provide redress to those 
                who have experienced housing discrimination, to 
                eliminate racial bias and other forms of discrimination 
                in all stages of home-buying and renting, to lift 
                barriers that restrict housing and neighborhood choice, 
                to promote diverse and inclusive communities, to ensure 
                sufficient physically accessible housing, and to secure 
                equal access to housing opportunity for all.

                Sec. 2. Examining Recent Regulatory Actions. The 
                Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) shall, 
                as soon as practicable, take all steps necessary to 
                examine the effects of the August 7, 2020, rule 
                entitled ``Preserving Community and Neighborhood 
                Choice'' (codified at parts 5, 91, 92, 570, 574, 576, 
                and 903 of title 24, Code of Federal Regulations), 
                including the effect that repealing the July 16, 2015, 
                rule entitled ``Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing'' 
                has had on HUD's statutory duty to affirmatively 
                further fair housing. The Secretary shall also, as soon 
                as practicable, take all steps necessary to examine the 
                effects of the September 24, 2020, rule entitled 
                ``HUD's Implementation of the Fair Housing Act's 
                Disparate Impact Standard'' (codified at part 100 of 
                title 24, Code of Federal Regulations), including the 
                effect that amending the February 15, 2013, rule 
                entitled ``Implementation of the Fair Housing Act's 
                Discriminatory Effects Standard'' has had on HUD's 
                statutory duty to ensure compliance with the Fair 
                Housing Act. Based on that examination, the Secretary 
                shall take any necessary steps, as appropriate and 
                consistent with applicable law, to implement the Fair 
                Housing Act's requirements that HUD administer its 
                programs in a manner that affirmatively furthers fair 
                housing and HUD's overall duty to administer the Act 
                (42 U.S.C. 3608(a)) including by preventing practices 
                with an unjustified discriminatory effect.

                Sec. 3. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this 
                memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise 
                affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or 
the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

                    (b) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent 
                with applicable law and subject to the availability of 
                appropriations.
                    (c) This memorandum is not intended to, and does 
                not, create any right or benefit, substantive or 
                procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any 
                party against the United States, its departments, 
                agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or 
                agents, or any other person.

[[Page 7489]]

                    (d) You are authorized and directed to publish this 
                memorandum in the Federal Register.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    Washington, January 26, 2021

[FR Doc. 2021-02074
Filed 1-28-21; 8:45 am]
Billing code 4210-67-P