Shelterforce

What’s the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing provision? How has it been enforced in the past? And what do fair housing advocates think of the proposed changes? Shelterforce’s new Under the Lens series—New AFFH Rules: What You Need to Know—explores that and more.

Grassroots organizers have used the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule to strengthen communities in the past. These examples show what we should advocate for in a new AFFH rule. 

After the population of unhoused people in Bangor increased during the pandemic, the city put forward a series of affordable housing solutions. But the new policies may harm unhoused residents rather than help them.

Shelterforce has put together a short video to explain what "Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing," or AFFH, means, and the history of its enforcement.

The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule was intended to force communities to take action to address housing segregation and discrimination. How has the rule evolved throughout the years, and will a proposed new rule finally put some teeth into the legal concept?

Jennifer Made started organizing at 13 and began feeding her community at 19, an effort that grew into the Newark Community Action Network.

Reaction to the housing crisis in California has led to a series of gains for tenants, including a new Renters’ Caucus.

Kea Mathis organizes alongside tenants—mostly Black, women-led households—to create and support affordable, quality housing. "It is very hard . . . as a Black woman here, to be the one to try to ask the question first or stand up first,” says Mathis.

Avian flu gave companies cover to price gouge. Could the attention to lack of housing supply do the same for landlords?