HUD Stories | Community Development Digest

Popular HUD Program Expands to Privately-Owned Sec. 8 Properties

The owners of privately-owned apartment buildings who hold Section 8 contracts with the federal government will now be allowed to offer Family Self-Sufficiency programs, thanks to an edict from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The decision will enable more than 1 million households residing in these properties to access the popular HUD-backed program.

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HUD’s Message to Liberal Springfield: ‘You Can’t Do That’

You have to wonder what goes through the heads of local housing officials who think they can ignore federal laws that require them to treat people with disabilities in nondiscriminatory ways. That question becomes particularly vexing when it applies to an area widely recognized as one of the nation’s strongest bastions of liberal ideology (registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 6 to 1). But that’s exactly the case in the Massachusetts state capital of Springfield where the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has entered into agreements with the local housing authority to settle allegations of housing discrimination based on disability.

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Dallas Back in Housing Bias Flap with HUD

Nearly two years after Dallas, TX officials thought they were off the Fair Housing Act violation hook, the segregation complaint brought by two developers roars back. And this time the city is in a more untenable position when it comes to cutting a deal with HUD. Now, Dallas finds itself fully in the clutches of the new Fair Housing Act, the Obama administration’s interpretation of the 1968 law that moves one largely ignored tenet of the law to the forefront -- Aggressively Furthering Fair Housing.

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HUD Makes Available New Resources to Curb Lead Poisoning

Planners, developers, contractors can take advantage of new grants and online resources from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, aimed at reducing childhood lead poisoning in homes and apartments.

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HUD Thumps Illinois Property Owners Group, Management Firm

A group of Illinois property owners and a management firm found out the hard way that it's unlawful to deny residency to would-be renters who may have mental disabilities. They ended up having to pay $630,000 in order to settle charges that they violated the Fair Housing Act of 1973 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

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Massachusetts Landlord Faces HUD Discrimination Charge

HUD has charged a Springfield, MA landlord with violating the Fair Housing Act by refusing to rent an apartment to a husband and wife with children. The landlord is also charged with printing discriminatory statements in his lease and retaliating against the family after they complained.

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New Online Tools Help Resolve Manufactured Housing Disputes

The Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has created new tools designed to help consumers and the manufactured housing industry resolve disputes involving the purchase and installation of manufactured housing.

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CA Property Manager, Owners Cited for Discrimination

Attention apartment complex owners and property managers: You can’t bar people from renting based on their national origin. If you doubt the truth of that warning, ask a Cupertino, CA-based property management company and the owners of a Santa Clara apartment complex what happened when they – allegedly -- discriminated against prospective renters by refusing to accept Mexican forms of identification, while encouraging a Canadian passport holder to apply for an apartment.

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HUD Seizes Operation of Illinois County Housing Authority

The Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has taken possession of the Cairo, IL-based Alexander County Housing Authority (ACHA). The agency took the action following what it described as “a years-long pattern of financial and operational mismanagement, poor housing conditions, and alleged civil rights violations against the households” for which the ACHA was responsible.

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HUD Secretary Launches 'Prosperity Playbook' Tour

The “Prosperity Playbook” will be a compilation of online resources written for and by state and local decision makers. The toolkit will inform community planning and help local leaders think regionally about how to expand affordable housing opportunities and forge greater economic mobility in communities across the nation.

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