WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, hosted a news conference call to discuss the civil rights report he recently released outlining how the Trump Administration has systematically undermined 50 years of fair housing progress. Brown’s report details how the Trump Administration has turned its back on the federal government’s fair housing obligations established in the 1968 Fair Housing Act and subsequently laws by turning a blind eye to housing discrimination, rewriting the rules to prevent victims of housing discrimination from seeking justice, gutting publicly available housing data, perpetuating segregation, proposing to make it harder for people to achieve the dream of homeownership, and proposing rules that will target, rather than protect, immigrant communities and LGBTQ communities.

“We need to restore the fair housing protections that the Trump Administration has rolled back and break down barriers to homeownership facing Black and brown communities,” said Brown. “And we need to actually invest in housing and community development in communities of color. This report provides a roadmap to both undo the damage Trump and his administration have done, and to build something better on the other side.”

Brown was joined on the call by Lisa Rice, President & CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance.

“Housing inequality and residential segregation are among the most harmful legacies of this country’s history and they continue to this day,” said Lisa Rice, president and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance. “We commend and thank Senator Brown for his leadership in shining a light on how this administration has sought to dismantle fair housing and lending protections. The legacy of our nation’s government-sponsored redlining and other discriminatory housing practices continue to undermine the opportunities of people of color and other marginalized communities. This administration has strengthened and furthered these harmful practices by dismantling strong Disparate Impact and Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rules replacing them with weak and toothless versions that erode long-standing fair housing principles. Everything must be done to set the nation back on track and we must use every resource and tool available to fight back against systemic racism and a long history of disinvestment in communities of color.”

Brown discussed what the Trump administration’s roll back of federal fair housing policies means for communities across Ohio. At a time when many Ohioans are struggling amid this pandemic, and when Black and Latino households are experiencing disproportionate financial burdens and housing instability, Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Senate Republicans have refused to provide rental and housing relief for families. Brown continues to press the President and his GOP Senate colleagues to act on emergency assistance to help families keep roofs over their heads and prevent them from facing eviction.

The report concludes by laying out a path to restore the basic civil rights the Trump Administration has rolled back and to make long-overdue investments in minority communities. Brown discussed how Congress must immediately reverse course on the Trump administration’s harmful policies by restoring fair housing protections, providing long-overdue investments in housing and community development in communities of color, investing in fair housing enforcement, breaking down barriers to homeownership, and more.

The executive summary of the report can be found here.

The full report can be found here.

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