U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced Wednesday the termination of the Biden administration’s 2021 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, a move he says will slash red tape and hand zoning power back to local and state governments.
The decision, effective immediately, aims to boost the supply of affordable housing by dismantling what Turner calls a “zoning tax” that stifled development.
“Local and state governments understand the needs of their communities much better than bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.,” Turner said in a statement. “Terminating this rule restores trust in local communities and property owners, while protecting America’s suburbs and neighborhood integrity.”
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The AFFH rule, rooted in the 1968 Fair Housing Act (FHA), requires HUD and recipients of federal housing funds to actively combat discrimination and promote fair housing. But its implementation has been a political football.
The Obama administration’s 2015 version ramped up federal oversight, mandating extensive paperwork—think 92-question grading tools and regional analyses—that critics slammed as burdensome. Trump’s first term axed it in 2020, calling it “costly, complicated, and ineffective,” only for Biden to resurrect it in 2021.
Turner’s move scraps the Biden-era iteration, arguing it drove up housing costs and choked supply by tying local zoning to federal strings.
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“Localities will no longer be required to complete onerous paperwork and drain their budgets to comply with extreme and restrictive demands,” he said. Instead, a simple certification of compliance with the FHA will suffice, freeing communities to prioritize market-driven growth over bureaucratic checklists.
The shift promises to unshackle rural, urban, and tribal areas from what HUD sees as overreach, letting them tailor housing solutions without Washington’s heavy hand.
“We are aware of communities that have been neglected or negatively impacted due to the demands of recent AFFH rules,” Turner added. “Returning to the law as written will advance market-driven development and allow American neighborhoods to flourish.”
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