Issue: Affordable Housing
Topic: Fair Housing Rights
Background
Local governments that receive certain funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are required to certify to the federal government that they “will affirmatively further fair housing.” To do so, they must conduct an “analysis of impediments to fair housing.” The Analysis of Impediments (AI) must include a comprehensive review of local laws, policies and practices, in order to determine whether they restrict the availability of housing based on race, national origin, disability or other groups protected from discrimination by the Fair Housing Act. The local government must then certify that it will take appropriate actions to overcome the effects of any impediments identified through that analysis. In the development of the AI, the local jurisdiction must include public participation of minorities and persons with disabilities. Ultimately, the AI is intended to help local governments do their part to combat restrictions on housing choice based on race, national origin, and disability, among others, and to promote open access to housing in high-opportunity neighborhoods.
The Obama administration has expressed a renewed commitment to making sure AIs are being done — and being done properly. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice and HUD intervened in a lawsuit against Westchester County, New York, in response to that County’s inadequate AI, resulting in a landmark affordable housing settlement.
At the same time, in July 2009, HUD focused on Marin County, initiating a comprehensive investigation into Marin’s compliance with its fair housing obligations. HUD noted that many communities in Marin, just as in Westchester, had few residents of color, and that Marin had not updated its AI since 1994. HUD’s final investigative report found that Marin’s minority population is far lower than that of the rest of the Bay Area, and that minority residents are mainly concentrated in just Marin City and east San Rafael’s Canal district. HUD’s review specifically concluded that the shortage of affordable housing contributes to these segregated residential patterns, as does the small amount of land zoned for residential development.
As a result of these findings, the County signed a Voluntary Compliance Agreement (VCA) with HUD at the end of 2010. The VCA requires the County to take certain actions within specified timeframes to correct non-compliance in six areas, one of which is the failure to adopt and implement an AI. The VCA sets a deadline for the County to submit an AI for HUD’s review, which has been extended to October 30. Among other things, the VCA requires the County’s AI to analyze:
- “the impediments to fair housing within its jurisdiction, including those based on race and ethnicity and municipal resistance to the development of affordable housing and those impediments identified by [HUD] during the course of its compliance review, which form attachment”;
- “the causes of lower racial and ethnic minority residency in the County relative to adjacent counties”; and
- “the actions the Recipient will take to address those impediments.”
On March 23, 2011, the County released a draft AI for public comment. The draft acknowledges many impediments, including those we identified in our August 2009 report on affordable housing implementation in Marin, and also includes many of our recommendations.
Our local partner in this work, the Action Coalition for Equity, is a group of leaders of color in Marin County who have engaged with elected officials to ensure a strong plan of actions and successful implementation. We assisted them in providing the County and HUD with thoughtful, comprehensive comments on the draft. In letters to the County and HUD, which we prepared on its behalf, the Coalition acknowledged that the County’s draft AI is an important first step because it identifies a wide range of housing barriers that confront people of color and members of other protected classes. Yet the Coaltion identified two fundamental shortcomings. First, the draft was developed without adequate input from the public, particularly communities of color. Second, there was no meaningful action plan to overcome the barriers to fair housing. The Coalition continued to engage with County and HUD officials, winning significant changes to both the process and the Implementation Plan.
Latest Updates
Marin County to Address Impediments to Fair Housing
October 11, 2011— In response to the Coalition’s public comments in March, the County released a draft Implementation Plan, but it fell far short in both substance and details from the range of bold actions that will be needed to promote a more open and inclusive Marin. In particular, it included few of the actions that the Coalition had recommended in a comprehensive plan for addressing the impediments that the county’s own Analysis had acknowledged. The County also began holding community forums in Marin City and the Canal, hearing at last from local residents themselves about the nature of the problem and the kinds of solutions that were needed.
In a series of meetings with County Supervisors and staff, the Coalition focused on the ten priority actions that they viewed as most essential to progress. The Coalition’s white paper, which we helped it prepare, focused on actions to promote affordable housing (including the adoption of over-due affordable housing plans, the rezoning of sites and the dedication of funding), improve local bus service, monitor Title VI compliance across the board, and open up the process of distributing HUD funds to include the voice of people of color. County staff attached the white paper to its report, and a countywide committee of elected officials directed staff to incorporate some of these actions into the plan.
In follow-up meetings with members of the Board of Supervisors, the Coalition won a commitment to include several more actions in the plan, including Title VI monitoring and the dedication of $600,000 to fund the implementation of the plan.
At its October 11 hearing, the Board of Supervisors adopted the AI and the Implementation Plan. Both its action, and the comments of members of the Board, reflected the success of the Coalition both in winning policy change and in moving the terms of the debate. Supervisor Judy Arnold, quoted in the KQED radio story, had this to say to Marin’s cities and towns, which have not yet signed on to the Plan:
“We know they’re concerned about local control, we know they’re concerned about unfunded mandates, but this is fulfilling Title VI, which says that’s discrimination, and that that’s what supersedes everything else in planning.”
Read a two-part series on the issues and history in Marin on KQED.
On Nov. 10, 2011, we submitted a comment letter to HUD in connection with its review of Marin’s submitted Analysis of Impediments and Implementation Plan. We noted that “actions are required to remove identified impediments in the policies and practices of the county of Marin and of each Marin municipality; yet only the county has committed to take action in the Implementation Plan,” and requested that HUD not approve the plan until it included the necessary actions at the municipal level.
On Dec. 6 we met with HUD representatives and members of the Action Coalition for Equity to discuss the coalition’s concerns.
