Biden Announces Actions to Address Racial Discrimination in Housing Market

President Biden on June 1 announced new steps to narrow the racial wealth gap and address racial discrimination in the housing market at a Tulsa, Okla., event commemorating the 100th anniversary of the race massacre that destroyed “Black Wall Street” in the once thriving Black community of Greenwood.

The administration announced it will launch a first-of-its-kind interagency effort to address inequity in home appraisals, and conduct rulemakings to aggressively combat housing discrimination.

The administration is also proposing a new Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit to attract private investment in the development and rehabilitation of affordable homes for low- and moderate-income home buyers and home owners. The tax credit would:

• Encourage investment in homes that cost more to redevelop than they can sell for on the open market.
• Bolster homeownership rates for low- and moderate-income home buyers in underserved communities, while protecting against gentrification.
• Incentivize ending exclusionary zoning and expanding housing choices.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has now sent both its proposed rule on countering housing practices with discriminatory effects and its proposed interim final rule on the legal duty to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing to HUD’s congressional authorizing committee in the Senate and the House of Representatives for review and will publish them in the Federal Register next week.

The White House says these proposed rules will align federal enforcement practices with the congressional promise in the Fair Housing Act to end discrimination in housing and will collectively provide the legal framework for HUD to require private and public entities alike to rethink established practices that contribute to or perpetuate inequities.

As part of its effort to address inequity in home appraisals, the administration is tasking HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge to lead a first-of-its-kind interagency initiative. The effort will seek to “utilize the many levers at the federal government’s disposal, including potential enforcement under fair housing laws, regulatory action, and development of standards and guidance in close partnership with industry and state and local governments, to root out discrimination in the appraisal and home buying process.”

View the White House fact sheet for more details.