The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today released the 2023 Update to its Equity Action Plan, in coordination with the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government equity agenda. This Equity Action Plan is part of the Department’s efforts to implement the President’s Executive Order on “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,” which reaffirmed the Administration’s commitment to deliver equity and build an America in which all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential.
“Equity is at the heart of the daily work we do as an agency,” said Secretary Marcia L. Fudge. “For too long, people – particularly Black, brown and poor people – have been left out and left behind. This Administration is using our resources to reverse the deep-seated harm caused by prior federal policies and prioritize racial equity in all HUD programs.”
As a leading agency that works to support America’s most historically disadvantaged populations, HUD’s Equity Action Plan prioritizes and embeds equity in the work the Department does every single day. HUD’s work, in accordance with the Biden-Harris Administration’s directive, extends to all program offices and departments and across both intra-and inter-agency initiatives.
Since the release of its first-ever Equity Action Plan in 2022, HUD has:
- Removed some systemic barriers to homeownership and helped about a quarter of a million Black homeowners to buy a home with FHA mortgages in the last 3 years.
- Worked on a final rule regarding Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), meaningfully implementing the Fair Housing Act to address inequality, replace segregated areas with integrated communities, and transform racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty into areas of opportunity.
- Restored the Discriminatory Effects Rule, an important tool to protect fair housing and address policies that unnecessarily cause systemic inequality in housing, regardless of whether they were adopted with discriminatory intent.
- Expanded access to housing counseling to help Black families and individuals unlock the wealth building potential of homeownership.
- Awarded more than $10 million in funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the country to conduct housing and community development research that focuses on individual and community wealth building, housing affordability and stability, climate resilience, and economic opportunity.
- Granted $30 million to fair housing organizations to fight housing discrimination in 2023 alone.
- Worked to build second chances in HUD-assisted housing for people with prior criminal records.
HUD works to create inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. In the last three years, HUD programs have served or permanently housed more than 1.2 million people experiencing homelessness. HUD’s Equity Action Plan reiterates its commitment to advancing equity for all communities across the nation.
As this work continues, updates will be posted on HUD.gov/equity. Learn more about the Administration’s equity work at whitehouse.gov/equity and check out all Federal Equity Action Plans at performance.gov/equity. To follow stories and posts across agencies, follow the hashtags #GovEquity and #GovDelivers on social media.