APPLE VALLEY — Town staff conducted a workshop in Council chambers Tuesday to gain community input in order to prepare a plan that’s expected to positively affect “issues and barriers” related to discrimination in home buying.
The town has until Oct. 4 to complete its Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing plan, a requirement of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that expands on existing fair-housing laws that work to root out various types of discrimination in the home-buying process, according to Housing and Community Development Specialist Chris Moore.
“Every agency that receives federal funding,” Moore said, “that is either HOME (Investment Partnerships Program) or (Community Development Block Grant), which we receives both of ... they’re all compelled to comply with these new regulations.”
The AFFH plan replaces the town’s Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice, the results of which called for ƒ “appropriate actions to overcome the effects of any impediments identified,” according to town documents.
AFFH is a prelude to the town’s five-year Consolidated Plan, Moore said, that works to develop strategies and goals for use of HOME and CDBG funding.
“(AFFH) takes a wider view as to what can we do, you know, proactively in our own department, but it also addresses what can be done within the community,” Moore said.
The aim of the new program is to develop strategies to identify potential contributing factors that could impede protected classes from an even playing field in home-buying and home-renting markets.
The federal government lists seven protected classes, including race, religion, sex and national origin. Sexual orientation is currently not protected at the federal level; however, it is among 10 protected classes in California that the town must additionally consider.
Working in conjunction with the City of Victorville, Monday’s workshop was one of several that will take place in the coming weeks as the two municipalities jointly develop fair-housing and equal-opportunity plans.
The next workshop is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday in Conference Room D inside Victorville City Hall.
For more information on the workshops contact the town’s Housing Division at 760-240-7000, ext. 7208, or the city’s Economic Development Department at 760-955-5032.