| Last night, the Senate voted to confirm a package of 107 nominees that included Craig Trainor to be Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Trainor has served as Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, where he has overseen the illegal weaponization of the Department’s civil rights authorities for purposes contrary to the advancement of civil rights, such as attacking schools for supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion. In response, NFHA Executive Vice President Nikitra Bailey issued the following statement: “It is deeply concerning that the Senate confirmed Craig Trainor to be the administration’s top fair housing official without even holding an individualized vote, much less scrutinizing his troubling record. This administration has already attacked fair housing enforcement in many ways, including eliminating much of the fair housing staff at FHEO and elsewhere in the government; trying to defund nonprofit, local fair housing organizations that make fair housing enforcement real for people seeking housing free of discrimination all over the country; announcing that it will not fully enforce the Fair Housing Act and will ignore, for example, claims that banks are redlining neighborhoods; threatening to withhold federal funds from states and localities that offer greater fair housing protections than provided in federal law, such as for veterans and seniors; and firing whistleblowers who sought to expose their unlawful actions. HUD Sec. Turner committed to ‘upholding the fair housing laws’ during his confirmation hearing, but so far HUD has not kept that promise. We urge Congress to hold Assistant Sec. Trainor and Sec. Turner accountable for providing the protections that the Fair Housing Act guarantees, and people desperately need in our current fair and affordable housing crisis.” |
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