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A fair housing rule that was enacted during the Obama administration, then rescinded in the first Trump administration, then restored in the Biden administration, has been rescinded again by the second Trump administration.

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced the latest termination of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, citing the administration’s belief that the rule does not align with its regulation-cutting regimen.

“By terminating the AFFH rule, localities will no longer be required to complete onerous paperwork and drain their budgets to comply with the extreme and restrictive demands made up by the federal government,” said Turner in a statement. “This action also returns decisions on zoning, home building, transportation, and more to local leaders. As HUD returns to the original understanding and enforcement of the law without onerous compliance requirements, we can better serve rural, urban and tribal communities that need access to fair and affordable housing.”

“We are aware of communities that have been neglected or negatively impacted due to the demands of recent AFFH rules,” Turner added. “Returning to the law as written will advance market-driven development and allow American neighborhoods to flourish.”

The AFFH rule debuted in 2015 and required cities and towns to publicly report data analyses of potential bias in their communities every three to five years in order to receive HUD funding. Under the rule, housing occupancy bias would be measured by race, disability, familial status, economic status, English proficiency, and other categories.

The first Trump administration terminated the AFFH rule in 2020 by claiming it “proved to be costly, complicated, and ineffective.” Acting HUD Secretary Matthew Ammon said the 2021 reversal of the Trump decision through a Biden Executive Order was “a vital step toward redressing the federal government’s legacy of housing discrimination and securing equal access to housing opportunity for all.”

In announcing the rule’s termination, HUD noted its decision was a red tape cutting measure because the AFFH rule “mandated the completion of complex jurisdictional and regional analysis, submission of a 92-question grading tool, and an analysis of impediments.”