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This article examines an important program in America’s fair housing enforcement effort, HUD’s Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP). It initially surveys federal fair housing enforcement and the evolution of FHAP. Then, focusing on illegal racial discrimination, it relies on HUD data sets and annual reports to Congress to compare how federal, state, and local agencies enforced the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 between FY 1989 and FY 2010.

The findings reveal that the number of state and local civil rights agencies participating in FHAP grew quickly during the 1980s, increasing to 122 agencies by 1992, but that number significantly decreased in more recent years. In addition, from FY 1989 to FY 2010 the total number of Title VIII complaints filed with HUD and FHAP agencies by Black Americans far surpassed those filed by Latinos, favorable outcomes for Latino complainants exceeded favorable outcomes for Black complainants, and although Blacks received almost twice the total monetary relief for all cause determinations combined, Latinos received more monetary relief than Black complainants when a single Title VIII violation was found, particularly in FY 1998, FY 2002, and FY 2010.

In the final analysis, FHAP is a valuable part of federal fair housing enforcement if properly implemented, yet the volume of Title VIII complaints filed with HUD and FHAP agencies is still only a fraction of the instances of racial residential discrimination estimated to occur annually. Untold cases of racial discrimination, routinely subtle, are not reported to HUD or FHAP, and even valid claims of racial discrimination may not result in favorable outcomes for complainants. Therefore, a more rigorous effort is necessary at all three levels of government to combat racial housing discrimination and segregation in the United States and to increase residential integration. A vital part of this solution lies in expanding FHAP to include the civil rights enforcement activities of far more state and local governments.

Bullock, Charles S. III, & Lamb, C. M. (2025). Race, fair housing enforcement, and the fair housing assistance program. Rutgers Race & the Law Review, 25(2), 213-254.

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Fair housing enforcement in the United States can be dramatically strengthened by HUD’s Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP). FHAP was created in 1979 to encourage state and local civil rights agencies to assist the federal government in enforcing the Fair Housing Act of 1968 (also known as Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of1968). According to Title VIII and HUD regulations, when any state or local government passes a law substantially equivalent to the Fair Housing Act in terms of rights, procedures, remedies, and the availability of judicial review, it may be certified by HUD to receive federal funds to perform three important tasks: conduct research, including discrimination studies; improve the institutional capability of participating state and local agencies; and process and close discrimination complaints originating in those jurisdictions. However, the number of certified FHAP agencies has fluctuated significantly since 1979, becoming unusually small in recent years. We argue this trend must be reversed by Congress and HUD for several reasons: (1) state and local legislatures have the power to require a broader coverage of protected groups, (2) a greater selection of procedural tools to use in fair housing enforcement, and (3) a stronger capacity to grant administrative relief to complainants. In addition, our proposal is reinforced by HUD’s administrative discretion in certifying substantially equivalent state and local fair housing laws as well as more general considerations of federalism and economics.

This Article is organized as follows. First, it briefly surveys the problems of housing segregation and discrimination in the U.S. and the federal legal response. Second, it explores Title VIII, as amended in 1988, and its enforcement. Third, this Article focuses on FHAP’s evolution, emphasizing how the number of state and local FHAP agencies skyrocketed in the 1980s but then clearly declined between 1992 and 2023, critically threatening their up-and-coming enforcement track record. The core of the Article argues that Congress and HUD should expand and reinforce FHAP to upgrade fair housing enforcement. Finally, we briefly discuss fair housing enforcement and its improvement within the country’s larger legal and political context. We argue that the U.S. must significantly increase the number of state and local governments that participate in FHAP while holding them to high standards of enforcement effectiveness and efficiency. In this way, two goals should be achieved: (1) advancing fair housing enforcement and (2) strengthening American federalism by securing another successful cooperative partnership between the federal and subnational governments.

Bullock, Charles S. III, & Lamb, C. M. (2024). Strengthening American Fair Housing Enforcement: A Proposal. UC Davis Social Justice Law Review, 28(2), 169-204.

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