Obama Administration Using HUD To Push For More Diverse Neighborhoods

Political Realities ^ | 08/08/13 | LD Jackson

[LD Jackson]

It seems our government will never learn their lesson. For decades, we have seen the political leaders and bureaucrats in Washington push for fair housing practices. They used the Community Reinvestment Act to do this and with each liberal President we elected, the push was intensified. Thus, we saw the housing market plunge off a cliff because so many people who couldn't afford a mortgage received one, nonetheless. Some bankers were afraid to refuse loans because of threats by groups such as ACORN. This push was the beginning of the trend that helped steer our economy into the worst recession since the Great Depression.

The Obama administration has made much of its policies to bring us out of that recession. Thus far, I would have to give them a failing grade in that effort. A recovery without jobs isn't much of a recovery. Could it be that they are really focusing on issues other than the economy? Issues that are deemed to be more important than a mere economic recovery that will help lift people out of poverty and expand the middle class? I contend that is the case. Lo, I offer you proof of just how misguided the focus of the Obama administration really is. They are about to use the Department of Housing and Urban Development as a hammer to forge our neighborhoods to their own liking.

Look around at your neighborhood. When I do that standing at my front door, I can see whites, blacks, and Hispanics. There may be some Asians living in our neighborhood, but I'm not sure. I consider ours to be a relatively diverse neighborhood. It consists of people from many walks of life, ethnicities, and backgrounds. Working from my memory, I am sure there are more whites than any other ethnicity. For the record, I have no problem with that. Nor would I have a problem if that were not the case. I am sure there are some neighborhoods that are more black than white, or more Asian or Hispanic than white or black. It's just how neighborhoods are made up. Some people just naturally gravitate to certain areas. Could it possibly be that is where they are most comfortable? Nothing wrong with that, in my opinion. The Obama administration does not feel that way, evidently. They are taking steps to make sure your neighborhood meets federal standards for diversity. Am I the only one who hates that word?

Fox News - In a move some claim is tantamount to social engineering, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is imposing a new rule that would allow the feds to track diversity in America’s neighborhoods and then push policies to change those it deems discriminatory.

The policy is called, "Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing." It will require HUD to gather data on segregation and discrimination in every single neighborhood and try to remedy it.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan unveiled the federal rule at the NAACP convention in July.

"Unfortunately, in too many of our hardest hit communities, no matter how hard a child or her parents work, the life chances of that child, even her lifespan, is determined by the zip code she grows up in. This is simply wrong,” he said.

Data from this discrimination database would be used with zoning laws, housing finance policy, infrastructure planning and transportation to alleviate alleged discrimination and segregation.

Whatever happened to the ideal that Americans are a people free to come and go, to live where they choose to live? The idea that the Obama administration thinks they should force our neighborhoods to be more diverse flies in the face of that freedom. Secretary Donovan made much of the idea that the zip code in which we live determines if we rise out of poverty or not. That fallacy completely negates the idea of free will and the ability and willingness to work hard and pull ourselves up by our boot straps. In other words, it does away with the idea of individualism and attempts to group us all together by where we live and where we come from.

The new rule by HUD has been published in the Federal Register and is in the midst of a 60-day commenting period. What troubles me the most is the lack of specifics in the rule. As we are seeing with Obamacare, the rule was written so to allow a broad interpretation of what the Obama administration wants to happen. Doing so gives HUD, and any other government bureaucrat who decides they want a piece of the diversity pie, a lot of room to make it up as they go along. Given the propensity of our government to overreach its constitutional boundaries, that gives me no comfort and a fair bit of worry.

The federal government helped cause the housing market and financial crash in 2008. Both can be traced back to specific policies by government agencies who were stepping out of their comfort zone to push for policies they deemed more important than anything else. This new rule by HUD is another step in that direction. It is a direction I wish we could reverse, as what I see down the road is not pleasant.

[baddog 219]

[mom.mom]

The point of this program, like all other liberal programs, is to destroy the traditional values, private property and personal wealth of this country using blacks and other poor minorities as the weapon.

[dfwgator]

The ultimate goal is for a government takeover of housing....Force landlords to accept Section 8 vouchers, or risk being sued for discrimination. Then soon these people will decide who lives where....

[Adder]

Not this sh!t again...they tried that in the 90’s or 80’s or whenever the he!!...

It did not work then and it won’t work now.

[Buckeye McFrog]

My Occam’s Razor explanation is that the Dems are simply using HUD to undermine the GOP’s masterful job of gerrymandering in 2010.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

[Paine in the Neck]

This is NOT about actually moving people into 'discriminatory' neighborhoods. It is about setting the pretext for lucrative suits against targeted communities. It is about redlining a community and assigning joint culpability of the residents for the community's 'discrimination' and exacting appropriate tribute. It is about 'reparations'.

[Wurlitzer]

Any black conservative who wants to move into my neighborhood would be welcomed with open arms.

All other blacks, I don’t want within 100 miles. You are ALMOST as bad as Muslims and do not contribute to advancing society but are and always will be a net drain on the rest of us.

[autumnraine]

I interview people and I am appalled to roll up into a really nice neighborhood with big two story, basement and garage on probably half an acre and find out they don’t pay anything for rent, it’s section 8.

[dagogo redux]

Each block will have a government-mandated crack house:

HUD has contracted with the CIA to ensure adequate supply, which will be managed by TSA-trained gangs at the local level.

FDA and HHS will oversea the purity of the product.

EPA will insure proper handling of excrement, and disposal of used needles and pipes.

BATF will supply the arms to the gangs, and the DEA will be coordinating oversight with the cartels.

Local SEIU chapters will be designated to unionize and manage the health and life insurance benefits for the gangs, and will bargain for their funeral benefits and the pensions for their surviving ho’s.

[longtermmemmory]

This is about election manipulation.

Dilute the conservative areas with zombie democrats and other low information voters to achieve idiocracy.

We need One County One vote to give parity with the city clusters.

[longtermmemmory]

when the slave class has ONLY vouchers then there is no property rights.

This is the post civil war plantation owners imposing sharecropper contracts on citizens.

[hoosiermama]

O’s neighborhood in the Southside of Chicago is less than a mile from the ghetto. No need for servant quarters they all just ride da bus up and down Blackstone. (As in the black P stone rangers)

[ScottinVA]