I believe Joe Biden’s plan for suburbs will result in the use of federal money and regulations to abolish suburbs. One of the first things current HUD Secretary Ben Carson did when Donald Trump came into office was remove the Obama Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulation.
This regulation promises to end discrimination and provide fair housing. However, it does not result in that outcome. It requires any city receiving HUD grants to mandate outcomes of housing based on race, disability, familial status and economic status. Mandating outcomes based on these factors effectively eliminates choice, frequently leaving people worse off than they were.
The main effects of the AFFH regulation are as follows:
• Quotas effectively force some out of their preferred choice (city vs. suburbs), removing options based on race, disability, familial status and economic status (opposite of what is advertised).
• Regulating development, restricting automobile use and limiting highway construction and repair will force some residents from the suburbs to the city.
• Federally enforcing local tax redistribution gives the federal government control to reallocate residents’ taxes away from the local area they are intended for.
While the AFFH regulation is currently removed, Biden and his choice for HUD secretary (Cory Booker) promised to reinstate AFFH and they also promise to do the following:
• Enact legislation to aggressively eliminate local zoning, instead mandate that all zoning become federal.
• Create regulations to stop zoning for single-family homes.
• Enact legislation requiring any state receiving federal Community Development Block Grants or Surface Transportation Block Grants (Home Act of 2019) to develop a strategy for “inclusionary zoning,” which, once again, mandates outcomes based on race and other discriminatory attributes.
Utilizing these plans, Biden and Booker could withhold federal funds from states that refuse to repeal zoning regulations, with emphasis on ending single-family housing. This could also give federal bureaucrats at HUD new, unprecedented power to decide where and how every new home, church and business will be built. HUD could use eminent domain to tear down homes in middle-class neighborhoods to meet mandated quotas for “low-income projects” in any neighborhood.
Biden’s plans and policies effectively remove LOCAL community and government power to place this power in federal hands. This goes against the core philosophy of our Constitution, to keep government as LOCAL to the people as possible, ensuring that The People control government instead of government controlling people. These policies force discriminatory quotas on local communities, remove local government rights, reduce the availability of single-family homes, needlessly increase federal power and effectively abolish suburbs.
Karla La Rosa
Saugus
