October 24, 2017
Various civil rights organizations (click here) joined to sue the Department of Housing and Urban Development over its decision to delay a housing policy Monday.
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund and four other groups filed the lawsuit against the department and its secretary, Ben Carson, for halting the implementation of the Small Area Fair Market Rule, the groups announced in a press release.
“The new rule gives families the purchasing power to move to higher-opportunity neighborhoods instead of being confined to segregated and impoverished ones” said Sherrilyn Ifill, LDF President and Director-Counsel. “But the rule doesn’t just open the door to a wider variety of housing choices. Families would also be able to choose better schools, jobs, healthcare, and even better grocery stores. HUD’s delay will needlessly deprive families of access to these staples of stable communities.”
The Small Area Fair Market Rule, part of the Housing Choice Voucher program, would allow poorer families to be able to move into richer neighborhoods. Under the rule, the government would pay more money for those with vouchers to live in higher income neighborhoods and pay less to those who went to live in poor neighborhoods....
