Barack Obama is spending the next months dismantling the last shreds of our free market America.
HUD is his weapon and he wields its new Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule like a concrete block. He batters communities into changing or ignoring their own zoning laws and allowing the government to dictate community planning.
Local officials submit to the government out of fear they will lose grant money or face bankrupting lawsuits.
As civil rights plaintiff firm Relman, Dane and Colfax said, just the threat of removing the money is enough to bring most communities in line. If it takes lawsuits to force them to abide by HUD, says attorney Michael Allen, “My firm stands ready to do its part. Anyone with me?”
Legal motivation is only the beginning. On June 8, 2016, the AFFH program evolved into a master plan that enables federal control of virtually every aspect of local planning and community living.
For months, the agency warned officials that the new AFFH was merely a platform for HUD’s aggressive interpretations of the Fair Housing Act. Interpretations that impact education, transportation, jobs and housing. Affordable housing is now nothing more than a launch pad for total community control.
Please help me stop this insidious program.
In June, HUD sent an official letter stating their intention to partner with the Departments of Education and Transportation to introduce “socioeconomic diversity” into elementary and secondary classrooms.
Here is why.
HUD is not content with people living in in areas they can afford. The administration argues if low-income families cannot afford to live in affluent areas, then local zoning laws are depriving them of opportunities. That means the community must correct the imbalance or risk facing charges of economic segregation and discrimination.
That is what happened to Baltimore County when three HUD residents joined with the local NAACP to complain to HUD that they did not live in prosperous enough areas. HUD forced the County to build 1000 new affordable homes and move 2000 section 8 recipients, all into affluent areas.
Obama then moved beyond affordable housing into classrooms.
He wants to desegregate schools that have been integrated for decades, using enforced diversity quotas. The administration will convert existing federal offices into regional Equity Assistance Centers for “the preparation, adoption, and implementation of plans for the desegregation of public schools.”
Got that. Obama says your community is guilty of discrimination if people live in neighborhoods they can afford, and HUD will address the problem by desegregating your school and calling it “socioeconomic diversity.” This change will happen regardless of local officials’ opposition, regardless of local school board decisions and regardless of voters’ choices.
SFL is fighting this in communities right now and, please, we need your help.
DOT is involved in the partnership because, according to Transportation Sec. Anthony Fox, “too many people lack the transportation options they need to pursue…high quality education, good paying jobs, and affordable housing.”
That means the HUD partnership will soon dictate planning outcomes that include high-density housing and mixed use developments near transit-oriented living.
Does that sound like regional planning? It should. The new AFFH application requires grant recipients to merge their zoning plans with those of the larger region, thereby enabling the region to annex the nearby smaller communities.
HUD’s platform has spilled over to Common Core in an effort to control what HUD calls, “adult outcomes.”
In Westchester County, still fighting back from 7 years of HUD’s relentless attacks, the government is shutting down parents that oppose Common Core.
Obama is threatening to withdraw Title I funds, the education money the feds send to the states, if the County has more than 5% of its students skipping the Common Core high stakes testing.
Obama knows that nearly 20% of parents already pulled their children from the damaging tests.
In spite of three laws prohibiting the federal government from interfering in local educations, they are not only interfering, they are hostilely taking it over and silencing any opposing parents or school boards.
We must stop HUD and all federal agencies from crushing local rule and turning community members into subjects.
H/T: John Anthony