The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) released updated Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) guidance and a new interactive AFFH Data Viewer to help local jurisdictions meet their fair housing requirements.

“The state continues to keep fair housing at the forefront of our efforts to expand housing,” said Lourdes Castro Ramírez, Secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency. “This guidance and the new data viewer released by HCD is yet another important milestone in furthering racial and residential equity.”

Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing seeks to eliminate racial bias, undo historic patterns of segregation, and lift barriers that restrict access to opportunity. Since the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, subsequent laws have sought to expand on protections afforded in the act to help prohibit discrimination and create real housing choice. The California Legislature took it one step further with the passage of Assembly Bill 686 (2018) which requires all state and local public agencies to address, combat, and relieve disparities resulting from past patterns of segregation in order to promote more inclusive communities. The law also creates new requirements for local jurisdictions to include affirmatively furthering fair housing as part of their housing planning process and in their housing elements (housing plans) due in 2021.

“The disproportionate economic and housing impacts of COVID-19 on low-income families and people of color have reaffirmed how vital it is for public entities to maintain our focus on achieving racial equity and opportunity for all Californians,” said HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez. “At HCD, we are focused on making sure that the execution of our mission is informed by and accountable to the struggle to achieve racial equity and fair housing choice in California. But we know we can only begin to see change when all levels of government work together.”

“Fifty-three years after the 1968 enactment of the federal Fair Housing Act, systemic discrimination continues to restrict housing opportunities for Black and Brown communities, and determines who can build generational wealth,” said Kevin Kish, Director of the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. “These tools will help public agencies and recipients of state funds to intensify their efforts to eliminate discrimination.”

To help local jurisdictions meet their AB 686 obligations, HCD released an AFFH Guidance Memo that includes detailed information on furthering fair housing, the new housing element requirements, and resources for communities. The new housing element requirements include an assessment of fair housing practices, an analysis of the relationship between available sites and areas of high or low resources, and concrete actions in the form of programs to affirmatively further fair housing. HCD also released the AFFH Data Viewer, an interactive mapping tool to help in the assessment of fair housing by consolidating data and providing options for addressing each component in the AFFH housing element requirement. HCD will continue to add to this guidance and tools in collaboration with local partners, advocates, and researchers.

For more information, please visit HCD’s AFFH webpage.