When housing choice and access are limited because of someone’s race, sexual orientation, disability status, or other protected characteristics, there are far-reaching impacts on their lives. These impacts include access to job opportunities, access to quality education, and impacts to mental and physical health.
The goal of Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) is to combat housing discrimination, eliminate racial bias, undo historic patterns of segregation, and lift barriers that restrict access in order to foster inclusive communities and achieve racial equity, fair housing choice, and opportunity for all Californians.
AFFH Guidance Memo
To help jurisdictions meet their AB 686 obligations, HCD released the AFFH Guidance Memo (PDF) that includes:
- The duty of all public agencies to affirmatively further fair housing.
- New housing element requirements.
- Additional resources for communities.
As jurisdictions, advocates, researchers, and other partners continue to work on AFFH in their communities, HCD looks forward to soliciting additional feedback and refining this guidance. The guidance memo should be considered a living document.
Background, fair housing requirements and changes to housing element law under AB 686.
The 2020 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice and recent stakeholder outreach data.
Resources
- HCD 2020 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (PDF)
- California Fair Housing Organizations (PDF)
- HUD 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule Guidebook (PDF)
- Racially Concentrated Areas of Affluence Research (PDF)
- ABAG AFFH Policies and Programs Toolkit
- Group Home Technical Advisory 2022 (PDF)
- Tenant Preference Policies