Trump Administration Puts on Hold an Obama-Era Desegregation Effort

[babylonsister]

Trump Administration Puts on Hold an Obama-Era Desegregation Effort

The rule would have helped poor Americans move to more expensive neighborhoods with better schools.

Alana Semuels 11:05 AM ET Business


The zip code where a child grows up can have a huge effect on that kid’s entire life. Children who grow up in low-poverty areas make more money than people who grow up in high-poverty areas, according to work by a team of researchers led by Raj Chetty, a Stanford economist. They’re also more likely to go to college and less likely to be single parents. To state the obvious, many poor families don’t have the resources to move to “high-opportunity neighborhoods.” Such areas, which boast better schools, parks, and jobs, are generally quite expensive. And, beyond financial constraints, low-income families often find it difficult to move to neighborhoods far away from family, friends, churches, and schools.

Through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Obama administration undertook a number of programs that sought to help families move from low- to high-opportunity neighborhoods. Part of the idea was that doing so would actually get people off government assistance, Julián Castro, the secretary of HUD during the final years of the Obama administration, told me. If they move to better neighborhoods, families can access better educational opportunities and jobs, make more money, and stop needing public help. “You need to help empower families by ensuring that they have the tools they need to succeed,” he said.

But the Trump administration recently suspended a key Obama policy that would have, on October 1, begun helping low-income people move. The program, called Small Area Fair Market Rents, would have increased the amount of money the government would pay for voucher-holders to rent homes in high-opportunity areas, and lowered the amount they would receive in low-opportunity areas. The program, which would have gone into effect in 23 metropolitan areas, would theoretically not have cost HUD any more money, something that seemingly would have appealed to an administration purportedly hell-bent on cutting government costs.

HUD decided to suspend the Obama-era rule because public-housing authorities needed more time to make the necessary changes to their voucher programs, HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan told me. In a letter sent to the 200 housing authorities in the 23 metropolitan areas that were supposed to implement the program starting on October 1, HUD said that its research suggested a need for more analysis of the costs and benefits of the program. HUD had not been able to provide the help to local housing authorities that it was supposed to provide because of the administration changeover, the letter said. The letter also suggested that the program could be affected by the administration’s mission to reduce regulations in government agencies. Additionally, several industry groups, including the National Association of Home Builders and the National Apartment Association, had expressed concern about the rule when asked to weigh in about existing regulations, HUD said.

Some housing activists fear that the suspension of the rule suggests that HUD is shifting, under President Trump, from a department that seeks to help people access higher-opportunity areas to one that leaves the poor essentially on their own. “It smells like a pretty clear message to people who advocate for fair housing that HUD is going to be less focused on that goal than it had been under the Obama administration,” Phil Garboden, a researcher at the Poverty and Inequality Lab at Johns Hopkins, told me.

more...

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/08/trump-hud/538386/

[JonLP24]

1. In practice it didn't do very well

I recall a Vice story on Texas where it has been increasingly more difficult to use a Section 8 voucher and a lot of the rich areas of Texas resisted a lot of types of housing for Section 8 vouchers because they paid to be in the upper classes.

On edit-- I'm sure there are more liberal states & cities where this has worked out just reminded me of issues primarily based on this Obama era rule in Texas.

[SummerSnow]

2. Section 8 will be dead in the water under 45 real soon

[heaven05]

3. ben carson

at the behest/order of the evil human being in the WH will help keep privilege and entitlement safe for a segment of the population that has always had that benefit, guaranteed.