Rutgers Race & the Law Review - Call for Submissions Volume 25

Dear Articles Editor,

Here is the abstract of an article I am currently writing. Does it sound like a study you would be interested in?  Thanks.

Race, Fair Housing Enforcement, and The Fair Housing Assistance Program

Charles M. Lamb, Research Professor, University at Buffalo, SUNY, Buffalo, NY 14260, clamb@buffalo.edu

 Abstract

The United States has made some progress in combating racial segregation and discrimination in housing since the 1960s, but it has plainly failed to achieve housing integration. Among other things, this means that far more effective and efficient enforcement of the nation’s fair housing laws is imperative if additional progress is to be forthcoming. This article focuses on a major program in the fair housing enforcement effort—HUD’s Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP)—with two specific objectives in mind. First, it surveys the origins and evolution of the FHAP program since its inception in 1979. Second, emphasizing racial discrimination and relying on large data sets obtained from HUD, it explores the implementation of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 between the late 1970s and the early 2000s by comparing HUD’s enforcement performance to that of state and local FHAP agencies. The article finds that the number of state and local civil rights agencies participating in the FHAP program grew rapidly during the Reagan administration and continued to grow through Barack Obama’s early years in the White House. Then, based on the HUD data set, it shows that Title VIII complaints processed by FHAP agencies increased markedly early in the Reagan years, conciliations and closures by HUD and FHAP agencies fluctuated over time, and total monetary relief grew appreciably during the Clinton presidency. It concludes that, overall, the FHAP program is a useful component in the federal fair housing enforcement effort, yet the volume of Title VIII complaints processed, conciliated, and closed annually by HUD and FHAP agencies represent only a fraction of the estimated instances of racial housing discrimination believed to occur each year. It is likely that countless instances of racial housing discrimination are not reported, and even valid claims of discrimination that reach federal, state, and local civil rights agencies or the courts do not necessarily result in a favorable outcome for complainants. Thus, in general, while FHAP agencies have often succeeded in providing some needed enforcement assistance to HUD, a much broader, more concerted effort is essential if government is to significantly reduce racial housing segregation and discrimination in America in the foreseeable future.