NLIHC and 10 other national housing and civil rights organizations sent a letter to HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge on September 21 requesting that the agency suspend funding for Texas’s disaster mitigation program following the state’s failure to enter into negotiations after a finding of discrimination by HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO). The letter recommends that funds be withheld until the state enters into a Voluntary Compliance Agreement (VCA) with HUD. The letter also recommends that the case be referred to the U.S. Department of Justice for further action.
HUD’s civil rights determination was made in response to one of four complaints about a program undertaken by the Texas General Land Office (GLO) filed with HUD’s FHEO. The determination found that the state had discriminated against non-white communities in Southeast Texas when distributing mitigation funds for areas impacted by Hurricane Harvey. The funds were part of the $2.1 billion in disaster mitigation funding provided to the state and were distributed through a GLO-established competition that penalized areas with larger overall and larger non-white populations and that directed funds to rural counties with larger white populations. HUD’s determination that the Texas GLO’s program was discriminatory was the result of an administrative complaint filed in June 2021 by NLIHC partners Texas Housers and the Northeast Action Collective. NLIHC issued a statement in March 2022 following the announcement of HUD’s determination calling it a “historic decision.” NLIHC and nine national organizations also sent a letter in May 2022 thanking the agency for the decision.
The new letter also makes reference to a similar fight occurring in Chicago, where HUD found that the city had utilized federal funds to move polluting industries into a single Black and Latino neighborhood. Like the situation in Texas, the city has not indicated that it would enter into negotiations to find a voluntary solution.
“The Biden-Harris administration has made racial equity a key focus. HUD’s failure to enforce civil rights law would directly undermine the administration’s mandate to increase equity, however, if the agency does not respond to this clear challenge in Southeast Texas,” reads the letter. “By moving decisively to uphold civil rights requirements within its programs, HUD can ensure that essential funding reaches those communities often left behind by America’s disaster recovery framework.”
Read the text of the letter at: https://bit.ly/3BDtGLl