94-4136. Federal Leadership of Fair Housing  

  • [Federal Register Volume 59, Number 35 (Tuesday, February 22, 1994)]
    [Presidential Documents]
    [Pages 8513-8515]
    From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
    [FR Doc No: 94-4136]
    
    
    [[Page Unknown]]
    
    [Federal Register: February 22, 1994]
    
    
    _______________________________________________________________________
    
    Part III
    
    
    
    
    
    The President
    
    
    
    
    
    _______________________________________________________________________
    
    
    
    Memorandum of January 17--
    Federal Leadership of Fair Housing
    
    
                            Presidential Documents 
    
    
    Federal Register
    Vol. 59, No. 35
    Tuesday, February 22, 1994
    
    ____________________________________________________________________
    
    Title 3--
    The President
                    Memorandum of January 17, 1994
    
     
    Federal Leadership of Fair Housing
    
                    Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and 
                    Agencies
    
                    On April 11, 1968, one week after the assassination of 
                    the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., 
                    the Fair Housing Act was enacted (1) to prohibit 
                    discrimination in housing, and (2) to direct the 
                    Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to 
                    affirmatively further fair housing in Federal housing 
                    and urban development programs. Twenty-five years 
                    later, despite a strengthening of the Fair Housing Act 
                    5 years ago, hundreds of acts of housing discrimination 
                    occur in our Nation each day.
    
                    Americans of every income level, seeking to live where 
                    they choose, feel the weight of discrimination because 
                    of the color of their skin, their race, their religion, 
                    their gender, their country of origin, or because they 
                    are disabled or have children.
    
                    An increasing body of evidence indicates that barriers 
                    to fair housing are pervasive. Forty percent of all 
                    families move every 5 years. This statistic is 
                    significant given the results of a recent study, 
                    commissioned by the Department of Housing and Urban 
                    Development (HUD), which found that more than half of 
                    the African Americans and Latinos seeking to rent or 
                    buy a home are treated differently than whites with the 
                    same qualifications. moreover, based upon Home Mortgage 
                    Disclosure Act data, the number of minority persons who 
                    are rejected when attempting to obtain loans to 
                    purchase homes is two to three times higher than it is 
                    for nonminorities in almost every metropolitan area of 
                    this country.
    
                    Racial and ethnic segregation, both in the private 
                    housing market and in public assisted housing, has been 
                    well documented. Despite legislation (the Fair Housing 
                    Act) and Executive action (Executive Order No. 11063), 
                    the divisive impact of housing segregation persists in 
                    metropolitan areas all across this country. Too many 
                    lower income and minority Americans face barriers to 
                    housing outside of central cities. Segregation in 
                    housing and schools deprives too many of our children 
                    and youth of an opportunity to enter the marketplace or 
                    work on an equal footing. For too many families, our 
                    cities are no longer the launching pads for economic 
                    self-sufficiency and upward mobility that they have 
                    been for countless immigrants and minorities since the 
                    country's birth. And many Americans who are better off 
                    abandon the cities.
    
                    The resulting decline in the very heart of too many of 
                    our metropolitan areas threatens all of us: the health 
                    of our dynamic regional economies--the very lifeblood 
                    of future national economic growth and higher living 
                    standards for all of us and all of our children--is 
                    placed at risk.
    
                    We can do better. We can start by making sure that our 
                    own Federal policies and programs across all of our 
                    agencies support the fair housing and equal opportunity 
                    goals to which all Americans are committed. If all of 
                    our executive agencies affirmatively further fair 
                    housing in the design of their policies and 
                    administration of their programs relating to housing 
                    and urban development, a truly nondiscriminatory 
                    housing market will be closer to achievement.
    
                    By an Executive Order (``the Order'') I am issuing 
                    today and this memorandum, I am addressing those needs. 
                    The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and, 
                    where appropriate, the Attorney General--the officials 
                    with the primary responsibility for the enforcement of 
                    Federal fair housing laws--will take the lead in 
                    developing and coordinating measures to carry out the 
                    purposes of this Order.
    
                    Through this Order, I am first expanding Executive 
                    Order No. 11063 to provide protection against 
                    discrimination in programs of Federal insurance or 
                    guaranty to persons who are disabled and to families 
                    with children.
    
                    Second, I am revoking the old Executive Order No. 12259 
                    entitled ``Leadership and Coordination of Fair Housing 
                    in Federal Programs.'' The new Executive order reflects 
                    the expanded authority of the Secretary of Housing and 
                    Urban Development and I am directing him to take 
                    stronger measures to provide leadership and 
                    coordination in affirmatively furthering fair housing 
                    in Federal programs.
    
                    Third, I ask the heads of departments and agencies, 
                    including the Federal banking agencies, to cooperate 
                    with the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 
                    identifying ways to structure agency programs and 
                    activities to affirmatively further fair housing and to 
                    promptly negotiate memoranda of understanding with him 
                    to accomplish that goal.
    
                    Further, I direct the Secretary of Housing and Urban 
                    Development to review all of HUD's programs to assure 
                    that they truly provide equal opportunity and promote 
                    economic self-sufficiency for those who are 
                    beneficiaries and recipients of those programs.
    
                    I also direct the Secretary to review HUD's programs to 
                    assure that they contain the maximum incentives to 
                    affirmatively further fair housing and to eliminate 
                    barriers to free choice where they continue to exist. 
                    This review shall include Federally assisted housing, 
                    Federally insured housing and other housing and housing 
                    related programs, including those of the Government 
                    National Mortgage Association and the Federal Housing 
                    Administration.
    
                    Today, I am establishing a new Cabinet-level 
                    organization to focus the cooperative efforts of all 
                    agencies on fair housing. The President's Fair Housing 
                    Council will be chaired by the Secretary of Housing and 
                    Urban Development and will consist of the Secretary of 
                    Health and Human Services, the Secretary of 
                    Transportation, the Secretary of Education, the 
                    Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Defense, the 
                    Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Veterans 
                    Affairs, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney 
                    General, the Secretary of the Interior, the Chair of 
                    the Federal Reserve, the Comptroller of the Currency, 
                    the Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, and 
                    the Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
    
                    The President's Fair Housing Council shall review the 
                    design and delivery of Federal programs and activities 
                    to ensure that they support a coordinated strategy to 
                    affirmatively further fair housing. The Council shall 
                    propose revisions to existing programs or activities, 
                    develop pilot programs and activities, and propose new 
                    programs and activities to achieve its goals.
    
                    I direct the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development 
                    and the President's Fair Housing Council to develop a 
                    pilot program to be implemented in selected 
                    metropolitan areas. This initiative will promote fair 
                    housing choice by helping inner-city families to move 
                    to suburban neighborhoods and by making the central 
                    city more attractive to those who have left it. I 
                    direct the members of the Council to undertake a 
                    demonstration program that will reinvent the way 
                    assisted housing is offered to applicants, will break 
                    down jurisdictional barriers in housing opportunities, 
                    and will promote the use of subsidies that diminish 
                    residential segregation, and will combine these 
                    initiatives with refined educational incentives aimed 
                    at improving the effectiveness of inner-city schools. I 
                    am directing that transportation alternatives be 
                    considered along with targeted social service and job 
                    training programs as part of the support necessary to 
                    create a one-stop, metropolitan area-wide fair housing 
                    opportunity pilot program that will effectively offer 
                    Federally assisted housing, Federally insured housing, 
                    and private market housing within a metropolitan area 
                    to all residents of the area. The pilot program should 
                    call upon realtors, mortgage lenders, housing 
                    providers, and local governments, among others, to 
                    assist in expanding housing choices.
    
                    To address the findings of recent studies, I hereby 
                    direct the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development 
                    and the Attorney General and, where appropriate, the 
                    heads of the Federal banking agencies to exercise 
                    national leadership to end discrimination in mortgage 
                    lending, the secondary mortgage marketing, and property 
                    insurance practices. The Secretary is directed to issue 
                    regulations to define discriminatory practices in these 
                    areas and the Secretary and the Attorney General are 
                    directed to aggressively enforce the laws prohibiting 
                    these practices.
    
                    In each of these areas, I direct the Secretary of 
                    Housing and Urban Development to take the lead with the 
                    other Federal agencies in working to gain the voluntary 
                    cooperation, participation, and expertise of all of 
                    those in private industry, the States and localities 
                    who can assist in achieving the Nation's fair housing 
                    goals.
    
                    The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is 
                    authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in 
                    the Federal Register.
    
                        (Presidential Sig.)>
    
    
                    THE WHITE HOUSE,
    
                        Washington, January 17, 1994.
    
    [FR Doc. 94-4136
    Filed 2-18-94; 10:53 am]
    Billing code 4210-01-M
    
                    Editorial note: For the text of Executive Order 12892, 
                    ``Leadership and Coordination of Fair Housing in 
                    Federal Programs: Affirmatively Furthering Fair 
                    Housing,'' see issue Jan. 20, p. 2939 of the Federal 
                    Register. See also the Weekly Compilation of 
                    Presidential Documents (vol. 30, p. 110).
      
    
    
    

Document Information

Published:
02/22/1994
Department:
Executive Office of the President
Entry Type:
Presidential Document
Document Type:
Memorandum
Document Number:
94-4136
Pages:
8513-8515 (3 pages)
Docket Numbers:
Federal Register: February 22, 1994
EOCitation:
of 1994-01-17