HUD Announces Voluntary Compliance Agreement With Multnomah County, Oregon
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced on October 23 that Multnomah County, Oregon, and the Multnomah County Homeless Services Department have agreed to stop dispensing assistance to the county's homeless population based on race, color, and national origin, which HUD said violated the Fair Housing Act and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
HUD said its Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) launched an investigation in May into the county for prioritizing residents for homelessness services using a DEI points system that, in HUD's words, picked winners and losers based on unlawful considerations. HUD said it investigated and resolved the matter in record time with its federal partners.
Under the Voluntary Compliance Agreement, the county is required to remove intake questions and scoring rubrics that prioritize applicants for housing assistance based on race, color, and national origin; to rescore applicants who may have been excluded based on their race or American national origin; and to ensure relevant employees and service providers receive fair housing training. HUD said it will continue to monitor the county for compliance.
HUD said the county's Multnomah Services and Screening Tool created a Priority Housing Pool for housing resources and awarded points to applicants for interest in culturally specific services and speaking English as a second language, which appeared to be proxies for race and national origin.
"HUD is ensuring that local governments use federal dollars to serve vulnerable citizens based on need, not new forms of unlawful DEI discrimination," Secretary Scott Turner said. Assistant Secretary Craig Trainor said discrimination does not become lawful because it is smuggled into a scoring system, screening tool, or bureaucratic workaround.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 美国住房与城市发展部总部 Robert C. Weaver 联邦大楼，位于华盛顿。 Photo: Carol M. Highsmith / Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
