The New York Times

Trump Moves to Roll Back Obama Program Addressing Housing Discrimination

Hailey Fuchs. July 23, 2020

“A study from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that under the Obama rule, municipalities proposed more ambitious fair housing goals. Justin Steil, a co-author of the study, said that the program initially faced some difficulties, including complaints from localities that its requirements were onerous, but that those issues could have been resolved with time.”

Slate

Ben Carson Ends Obama-Era Efforts to Reduce Housing Segregation

Henry Grabar. August 13, 2018

That, argues Nicholas Kelly, a Ph.D. candidate at MIT who conducted the first systematic evaluation of the AFFH plans, is exactly the point. One object of the AFFH rule was to ensure that HUD no longer functioned as a meaningless rubber-stamp for local officials that didn’t take housing choice seriously.

“We have not found the process was very burdensome,” Kelly said of the review of the 49 plans, which was conducted with MIT’s Justin Steil. “Those that were rejected had a back and forth, and HUD was very helpful. We found the rejection process was actually focused on achieving positive results [another Carson criticism of AFFH]… a dramatic improvement.”

The MIT team also called all the cities who had been set to submit AFFH plans for the most recent cycle, before Carson killed the rule in January: “We found cities were very bewildered. Right as they were about to submit, HUD pulled the rug out from under them. To their credit, many submitted their AFFH plans anyway, under the AI frame.”

The Boston Globe

Trump says Biden would ‘destroy’ the suburbs. What is he talking about?

Tim Logan. August 17, 2020

People who have kept tabs on AFFH — as the rule is known — say the issue is far more nuanced than Trump makes it out to be. For one thing, while plans had to be approved by HUD, they were written by local governments, said Justin Steil, a law professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who tracked AFFH.

“They make it seem like this top-down requirement from Washington,” he said. “The whole point is that each locality has its own needs, and it makes sense for each locality to make its own goals and plans.”

Boston Indicators

Affordable Housing: Convert and Acquire Buildings COVID Has Made Available

Nicholas Kelly and Soni Gupta. March 5, 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the many ways in which our existing systems reinforce inequality. In housing, we’ve seen the devastating consequences of overcrowded homes and an over-capacity shelter system where the virus easily spreads. While the reasons for Boston’s persistent housing crisis are numerous, one stands out: a lack of affordable units. The efforts of affordable housing advocates and developers have been severely hampered by restrictive zoning and slow-moving construction and permitting processes. Today, however, the economic ravages of COVID have led to an oversupply of certain existing building types that could be converted and preserved into long-term affordable housing. Specifically, we see opportunities to convert/preserve four types of structures and institutions in Greater Boston: vacant office space downtown and in the suburbs, shuttered college campuses, underutilized suburban hotels and nursing homes, and naturally occurring affordable rental housing.