[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]


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Part III





The President





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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).