Obama administration to announce new rules promoting housing desegregation

President Barack Obama and Secretary of U.S. Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro

(Image credit: Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images)

last updated 8 July 2015

On Wednesday, the Obama administration will announce new rules to further the desegregation work of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, requiring cities across the country to look for racial bias in housing and regularly report findings on a three- to five-year basis. When the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968, it became illegal to refuse housing to a person based on race, religion, ethnicity, or gender. While the mandate also required the government to actively work to ensure racially integrated neighborhoods, The Washington Post reports that mandate has "largely been forgotten, neglected, and unenforced" for four decades — until now.

"This is the most serious effort that HUD [Housing and Urban Development] has ever undertaken to do that," HUD Secretary Julian Castro told The Washington Post. "I believe that it's historic." Under Obama's new rules, communities will also be required to set goals to further reduce segregation. Communities that do not adhere to the housing law will have federal funding withheld by HUD.

Wednesday's announcement comes just weeks after the Supreme Court issued a ruling supporting the Fair Housing Act. In June, the court ruled 5-4 that even if discrimination is unintentional, it's still illegal.