PITTSBURGH, PA (August 3, 2020) The City of Pittsburgh remains committed to fighting housing discrimination, despite recent actions by the Trump Administration to roll back fair housing rules.
The Department of Housing and Urban Redevelopment stripped protections from Affirmatively Further Fair Housing (AFFH) regulations, which are meant to reduce residential segregation, housing discrimination, and unlawful housing practices that were borne out of systemic racism.
Despite this move by the Trump Administration, Mayor William Peduto and the Commission on Human Relations (CHR), with the support of the Fair Housing Partnership of Greater Pittsburgh, remain committed to reducing discrimination, and will continue to enforce AFFH regulations as they have since 2015.
“This is just the latest move by the Trump Administration to reinforce generations of systemic racism plaguing our communities, in which government housing policy is used to negatively impact black people by not allowing the same opportunities that other neighbors have,” Mayor Peduto said.
“With rising rents nationwide, a shortage of affordable housing, and new housing instability created by COVID-19, we must create just and equitable housing opportunities in order to provide safe housing as a human right, available to all and free of discrimination,” CHR Executive Director Megan Stanley said.
The new rule increases the risk of segregation and harmful practices rooted in systemic racism, as practices like redlining continue in Pittsburgh and other communities around the nation. It comes as the Commission has adjudicated 25% more housing discrimination complaints than the previous year, which shows the City needs more, not less, protections and policies in place to reduce unfair housing practices.
CHR has partnered with CREATE Lab on Earthtime visualizations on the need for AFFH in Pittsburgh and is now extending these efforts into City Planning and public engagement.
It also formed a AFFH Task Force, which released a report on fair housing this spring.
