ERASE RACISM PRAISES PRESIDENT BIDEN FOR ISSUING AN EXECUTIVE ORDER TO UNDO KEY TRUMP ADMINISTRATION INITIATIVES THAT UNDERCUT FAIR HOUSING

Syosset, NY – January 27, 2021 – ERASE Racism President Elaine Gross today issued the following statement on the Executive Order issued yesterday by President Joe Biden to redress the federal government's role in housing discrimination:

"President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order on January 26 titled "Memorandum on Redressing our Nation's and the Federal Government's History of Discriminatory Housing Practices and Policies." The Executive Order has two fundamental components: first, it recognizes the extensive role of federal, state, and local governments in advancing housing discrimination historically; second, it initiates an assessment of the impact of two major initiatives of the Trump Administration that undercut fair housing.

ERASE Racism strongly opposed those two Trump Administration initiatives: one would maintain housing segregation by blocking implementation of the statutory obligation to "affirmatively further fair housing;" the other would nullify the Fair Housing Act's Discriminatory Effects standard, under which the impact of a policy is just as relevant as the motivation. Without that standard, also called Disparate Impact, a well-established legal avenue to prosecute housing discrimination would be invalidated.

The Executive Order further instructs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development,

based on the required assessment, to take appropriate

steps to affirmatively further fair housing and prevent practices with an unjustified discriminatory effect.

President Biden deserves credit for this important early action putting the force of the federal government behind opposing housing discrimination rather than advancing it. The federal government's commitment to fair housing, however, should be clarified by Congress and not left to be a byproduct of the commitment of any particular president."

Click here to download a PDF of the Press Release.