Your editorial is an especially important call for a renewed and enhanced commitment to ensuring that federal housing programs truly increase access to opportunity.
Residential segregation and disinvestment have been caused and perpetuated by a long history of public and private discrimination. Overcoming this has been one of the most difficult challenges that we have ever faced.
Fair housing advocates stand ready to use the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s new Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulation to bring meaningful investment to poor neighborhoods, open up real pathways for families to move to higher opportunity communities and help end segregation once and for all.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project has also preserved the necessary tools for our robust enforcement of the Fair Housing Act. The Times’s stand will strengthen our resolve as we carry this work forward.
JOSEPH D. RICH
PHILIP TEGELER
DEBORAH GOLDBERG
Washington
Mr. Rich is the co-director of the Fair Housing and Community Development Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Mr. Tegeler is the executive director of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council. Ms. Goldberg is the vice president for housing policy and special projects at the National Fair Housing Alliance.
