The Trump Administration's Assault on Diversity Spreads to Housing Vouchers

Trump's war on "political correctness" appears to be more than just a war on words. Jeff Sessions' Deptartment of Justice is assigning its Civil Rights Division to investigate and litigate the interests of white applicants in universities with affirmative action admissions policies. Several weeks ago, Trump tweeted that he was revoking the policy allowing transgender individuals to serve in the military. Then last week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it was delaying an Obama Administration rule intended to minimize segregation of housing voucher recipients. San Diego-based poverty lawyer Parisa Ijadi-Maghsoodi writes: 

The Final Rule was an attempt by the Obama Administration to address the nation’s housing segregation crisis.  Segregation levels today mirror those that existed in the 1960s. See study. This resegregation of communities is a crisis exacerbated in metropolitan areas, like San Diego, where vouchers are accepted only in low-opportunity, high-poverty neighborhoods, if at all. Only 15% of children in families that receive housing subsidies live in low-poverty areas, the vast majority of these children live in very poor, segregated neighborhoods. See report.

Ijadi-Maghsoodi goes on to describe how the suspended Final Rule worked and how housing vouchers worked generally. HUD claims the rule is being delayed simply to allow public housing agencies more time to adjust their programs, and that any public housing authority ready to implement the rule may do so. However, housing advocates remain unconvinced given other recent administration moves and Trump's push to roll-back Obama Administration regulations.