Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson announced that his department is ending an Obama-era regulation that ensures that local governments comply with the Fair Housing Act. Following the announcement, Alexandra Cawthorne Gaines, vice president of the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
Having a safe, accessible, and affordable place to call home has always been essential for health and economic security. This has never been more evident than during the past four months, when hundreds of millions of Americans have been forced to shelter in their homes to protect themselves and their families from the coronavirus. Yet even in the midst of this historic public health crisis, the Trump administration is choosing to end Obama-era protections that prevent housing discrimination and insecurity.
Black, Native, Latinx, LGBTQ, and disabled Americans—the people most affected by COVID-19 —are also the most vulnerable to housing discrimination and will disproportionately lose their homes, and their refuge from the virus, thanks to the Trump administration. The fact that this rule was announced just days before a nationwide moratorium on evictions is set to expire and millions of August rents are due only underscores that, as with so much of what the Trump administration does, the cruelty is the point.
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