President Biden took steps on Tuesday to eliminate Trump administration housing rules that former President Donald Trump said would save the suburbs from being “abolished” through affirmative-action regulations.
Mr. Biden’s order directed the secretary of Housing and Urban Development to “examine the effects” of the Trump rules, imposed last summer during the presidential campaign, that had rescinded the Obama-era “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” regulation of 2013.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump said his action would spare suburban communities from being over-run with low-income housing. He warned during a town-hall meeting that Mr. Biden and his Democratic allies would “abolish” the suburbs if they won the election.
“They want to eliminate single-family zoning, bringing who knows into your suburbs, so your communities will be unsafe and your housing values will go down,” Mr. Trump said.
The 2013 rule was an update to the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and required communities to fill out reports on barriers to fair housing in their jurisdictions.
Acting HUD Secretary Matthew Ammon said Mr. Biden’s executive order “is a vital step toward redressing the federal government’s legacy of housing discrimination and securing equal access to housing opportunity for all.”
“Racially discriminatory housing practices and policies have kept communities of color from accessing safe, high-quality housing and the chance to build wealth that comes through homeownership,” he said.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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