The Truth About the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule

At tonight's city council meeting, Councilman Keith Brainard pulled item G from the consent agenda and placed it on the legislative part of the agenda. He then presented the well-reasoned, insightful and powerful analysis of the danger of applying for and receiving HUD grants.

Here is the text of item G; Consideration and possible action to approve the submission of an application to Williamson County to request FY2016-17 Community Development Block Grant(CDBG) funding.

Here is Councilman Brainard's analysis:

"Item G is consideration and possible action to approve the submission of an application to Williamson County to request Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding.

As the staff writeup says, starting this year, the so called Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule requires any jurisdiction that accepts funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to perform a study to examine any possible patterns of housing discrimination.

Who, you may ask, will decide whether or not Georgetown is engaging in housing discrimination? That would be the federal government in Washington, DC. On what criteria will it be determined that Georgetown may be engaging in housing discrimination? Race and ethnicity, which are being used as proxies for class.

Under AFFH, once a town takes HUD money, it effectively loses control not only over housing, but schools, zoning, transportation, the environment, and business location. If we take HUD money, we play by their rules. The AFFH could spell the end of local government in America. Once Georgetown is lumped into the same region as Austin, then Georgetown's, housing demographics will be considered as part of those of Austin, and we essentially become a satellite of Austin.

Once this happens, we will have handed over to the federal government control of vital decisions that determine the content and character of our city.

The staff writeup indicates Williamson County is the participating jurisdiction in this application, and the county will conduct the study as part of the grant requirements. Georgetown will be included within the study, regardless of whether grant funds are accepted by the city. This means that Williamson County will be subjecting itself to federal scrutiny over the key areas that historically have been the bailiwick of local governments this nation.

The day is coming when Georgetown will apply for HUD monies on its own, without having to go through the county. And when we accept one dollar of HUD money, we will have potentially handed over local control to Washington DC.

I may not be on the city council when that day arrives. I hope before I leave for this council to have a discussion of whether or not accepting federal monies for sidewalks and other projects justifies the Faustian bargain of handing over our city's soul to the federal government."

After it was clarified that the City was not committed until the grant was approved and sent to the City for signature, the council voted to approve the submission of an application.

Hopefully the ground work has been laid for real discussions on the dangers of accepting HUD money. The city needs to reject any and all federal funds that come with strings attached that limit the city council's ability to govern in accordance with the wishes of the citizens.