National Fair Housing Alliance v. Carson

The National Fair Housing Alliance, Texas Appleseed, and Texas Housers filed suit in the Federal District Court in the District of Columbia challenging the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s decision to suspend key portions of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule. Public Citizen is co-counsel for the plaintiffs, along with lawyers at several civil rights organizations.

The Fair Housing Act’s AFFH provision is a crucial part of the Act, requiring HUD and recipients of federal funding to work to affirmatively further fair housing and reduce segregation in communities across America. The complaint explains that HUD unlawfully suspended the AFFH rule by eliminating the tool through which local governments implemented it, thereby effectively eliminating HUD’s fair-housing oversight of almost 1,000 jurisdictions. In its place, HUD has directed funding recipients to revert to a planning process that HUD itself determined was ineffective.

The district court, however, found that the plaintiff groups lacked standing to challenge HUD’s action and dismissed the case. We then filed a motion to amend the judgment and for leave to amend the complaint.  The court however, in a decision issued on August 26, 2019, denied the motion.