A coalition of 79 nonprofits representing fair housing, real estate, consumer, civil rights and domestic violence organizations have called on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to reject the redesigned housing discrimination complaint form issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that would end the acceptance of complaints in languages other than English.
The department is ending the use of all seven translated versions of Form HUD-903 – the languages involved are Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Vietnamese, Khmer, Korean, and Somali – while adding an English-only banner at the top of the page in a bold font. The new form also requires complainants to swear under penalty of perjury that they’ve read a page of English statutory summaries.
HUD has also removed text from the form that identifies limited English proficiency as a form of national origin discrimination. The coalition argues the changes to Form HUD-903 run afoul of the Fair Housing Act, the Violence Against Women Act, and the Paperwork Reduction Act.
Before the new form goes into effect, HUD requires OMB’s sign-off under the Paperwork Reduction Act, which requires agencies to account for the burden a form places on the public before they can use it. The coalition is calling on the OMB to send the form back to HUD and to hold the submission until HUD finishes the fair housing complaint-processing rulemaking it has already scheduled for later this year, which is expected to change the complaint submission requirements again.
“During the nation’s fair and affordable housing crisis, HUD is making it more difficult for people to file complaints of housing discrimination,” said Nikitra Bailey, executive vice president of the National Fair Housing Alliance. “Many of these families are most likely to face unlawful housing discrimination in the first place and some already fear that their voices will not be heard. Now they’re being told they will not be able to report the harm to federal authorities in languages that are currently acceptable.”
Give a 12 month time period the new All English form goes into effect. English is the primary language in USA. No more enabling foreigners. If they can’t read English they can easily get it translated if necessary & hopefully in time they will learn English. The gall of the leftists enabling foreigners never stops.
Give a 12 month time period the new All English form goes into effect. English is the primary language in USA. No more enabling foreigners. If they can’t read English they can easily get it translated if necessary & hopefully in time they will learn English. The gall of the leftists enabling foreigners never stops.