The Department of Housing and Urban Development said Thursday it is opening an investigation into Boston’s housing policies, looking at whether the city’s racial equity initiatives violate the civil rights of white people. The investigation could result in legal action by the Justice Department.
“We believe the City of Boston has engaged in a social engineering project that intentionally advances discriminatory housing policies driven by an ideological commitment to DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] rather than merit or need,” Scott Turner, the federal housing secretary, said in a statement on the agency’s website.
The department informed Boston of its investigation in a letter Thursday that said, under Mayor Michelle Wu, city officials have tried to “smuggle” racial equity into every level of the city’s operations.
In response, a Wu spokesperson called the investigation the latest of multiple “unhinged attacks from Washington.”
“Boston will never abandon our commitment to fair and affordable housing, and we will defend our progress to keep Bostonians in their homes,” the spokesperson wrote.
Turner cited Boston’s Housing Strategy for 2025 as an example of a “racially discriminatory housing plan.” The document spells out the city’s plan to expand affordable housing and includes reducing “racial disparities through homeownership and development opportunities for BIPOC-led organizations.”
“This warped mentality will be fully exposed, and Boston will come into full compliance with federal anti-discrimination law,” Turner said.
Reports find ongoing major racial disparities in homeownership in Greater Boston.
Jacy Gaige, the former director of enforcement in HUD’s office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, said the probe contradicts the country’s foundational civil rights law.
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Gaige said the probe into Boston appears to be following a similar approach taken by the Department of Education with its civil rights investigations into universities. That effort was led by Craig Trainor, who moved from the Department of Education to become HUD’s assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity. Trainor signed the letter sent to Wu informing her of the probe.
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John Smith, executive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative based in Roxbury, said the Trump administration is turning “the basic definition of fairness and civil rights basically upside down.” He said HUD has already been gutting protections spelled out in the 1968 Fair Housing Act, part of the Civil Rights Act.
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The post Feds Investigate Boston’s Housing Policies for Discrimination Against White People appeared first on American Renaissance.
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