The 2023 proposed AFFH rule establishes an Equity Plan (formerly known as the Assessment of Fair Housing). Components of the plan include the following.

All program participants are required to complete an Equity Plan. The new “streamlined process” requires participants to respond to questions in a few broad areas. The new rule does away with the 2015 AFH Assessment tool, which included more than 100 questions and more than 40 contributing factors.

Equity Plans must respond to a set of questions related to the following:

• Demographics
• Segregation and integration
• R/ECAPs (racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty)
• Access to community assets
• Access to affordable housing opportunities
• Access to homeownership and economic opportunity
• Local and state policies and practices impacting fair housing

Equity Plans must include the following:

• Description of fair housing issues identified, which includes conditions that constitute the fair housing issue and protected class groups who are adversely affected
• Prioritization of fair housing issues with priority given to fair housing issues that will result in the most effective fair housing goals for achieving material positive change for underserved communities
• Fair housing goals
• Description of community engagement activities

HUD intends to keep providing and making publicly accessible its data sets, maps, tools, and other resources to aid program participants and communities in identifying fair housing concerns. HUD will also post all program participants’ Equity Plans on a HUD-run website, enabling participants to view accepted plans from others and learn from their experiences.

Community engagement is a continued priority for the AFFH process, and the proposed rule includes the following requirements.

• Program participants must engage with the public during the development of the Equity Plan, from the identification of fair housing issues to the establishment of fair housing goals.
• While the Equity Plan is in effect, program participants must also engage with their communities on at least an annual basis to receive community input on the advancement of previously established fair housing goals.
• For the development of an Equity Plan, community engagement must include, at a minimum, the following components:
   

1. At least three public meetings at various accessible locations and at different times
2. At least one meeting held in a location in the jurisdiction in which underserved communities disproportionately reside
3. Annual community engagement must include at least two public meetings at different locations, with one located in an area of the jurisdiction in which underserved communities predominantly reside
    

• Community engagement must involve reaching out to local leaders and community-based organizations, including advocates, community groups, clergy, health-care providers, educators, and service providers like social workers and case managers, to gather community perspectives and provide fair housing planning information.

The 2023 AFFH rule poses a stronger link between fair housing goals and strategies. 

• The proposed AFFH rule requires program participants to incorporate the fair housing goals from their Equity Plans into their consolidated plan, annual action plan, or Public Housing Authority (PHA) plan.
• Program participants must also incorporate the fair housing goals from their Equity Plans into planning documents required in connection with the receipt of federal financial assistance from any other federal executive department or agency.

The 2023 proposed AFFH rule establishes a sequential timeline for program participants to engage with the AFFH process. 

Consolidated Equity Plans are due every five years, with a staggered start date based on the size of grant funds.

• For program participants receiving $100 million or more in grant funds starting in 2024, the first Equity Plan must be submitted by 24 months after the proposed rule’s effective date or 365 days prior to the date for which a new consolidated plan is due (whichever is earlier).
• For program participants receiving between $30 million and $99 million in grant funds starting in 2025, the first Equity Plan must be submitted no later than 365 days prior to the date for which a new consolidated plan is due.
• For program participants receiving between $1 million and $29 million in grant funds starting in 2026, the first Equity Plan must be submitted no later than 365 days prior to the date for which a new consolidated plan is due.
• For program participants receiving less than $1 million in grant funds starting in 2027, the first Equity Plan must be submitted no later than 365 days prior to the date for which a new consolidated plan is due.

For Public Housing Agencies, Equity Plans are due every 5 years, with a staggered start date based on the number of public housing units and vouchers.

• For PHAs with 50,000 or more public housing units and vouchers, the first Equity Plan must be submitted by 24 months after the proposed rule’s effective date or 365 days prior to the date for which a new five-year plan is due following the start of the fiscal year that begins in January 2024, whichever is earlier.
• For each PHA with 10,000–49,999 public housing units and vouchers, the first Equity Plan must be submitted no later than 365 days prior to the date for which a new five-year plan is due following the start of the fiscal year that begins in January 2025.
• For each PHA with 1,000–9,999 public housing units and vouchers or PHAs that operate statewide, the first Equity Plan must be submitted no later than 365 days prior to the date for which a new five-year plan is due following the start of the fiscal year that begins in January 2026.
• For each PHA with less than 1,000 public housing units and vouchers, the first Equity Plan shall be submitted no later than 365 days prior to the date for which a new 5-year plan is due following the start of the fiscal year that begins in January 2027.

Within 100 calendar days after HUD receives the Equity Plan, HUD will either accept or reject the plan; if HUD rejects the plan, HUD will inform the program participant the reasons why and actions they may take to resolve the nonacceptance.

New opportunities for transparency, oversight, and accountability are included through the 2023 proposed AFFH rule.

• Program participants will make drafts of the Equity Plan available for purposes of community engagement and HUD will publish submitted Equity Plans on a website for public access.
• HUD will accept information from the public during its review of the submitted Equity Plan.
• HUD will require annual progress evaluations regarding progress made on each goal.
• Failure to have an accepted Equity Plan at the time of the consolidated plan or PHA plan (or special assurances that the program participant will submit its Equity Plan by a specified date) will lead to the disapproval of a consolidated plan or PHA plan, and failure to comply with special assurances will jeopardize funding.
• Complaints may be submitted to HUD by an individual, association, or other organization that alleges that a program participant has failed to comply with their obligation to adhere to the AFFH rule. The responsible civil rights official will investigate complaints and may periodically conduct reviews of program participants to ascertain whether there has been a failure to comply with the program participant’s obligation to affirmatively further fair housing under the Fair Housing Act.
• Proposed regulatory provisions relating to the filing and investigation of complaints and HUD’s procedures for obtaining compliance are consistent with the oversight and enforcement mechanisms that exist for other federal civil rights statutes that HUD implements.

Your comment should be addressed to:  

Regulations Division  
Office of General Counsel  
Department of Housing and Urban Development  
451 7th Street SW, Room 10276  
Washington, DC 20410-0500   

Adding in an address is a fairly uniform requirement for all comments, especially if you decide to mail, fax, or email your comment. If this is the case, be sure to check important addresses related to the rule.v However, if you decide to submit your comment through an online portal, the address may not be necessary, but be sure to identify the Regulations Division and Department of Housing and Urban Development as this may be crucial for identifying the rule on which you are commenting and where it goes for review. More information on how to submit your comment can be found in the section entitled “How and Where to Submit Your Comment.” 

Docket information  

You should be sure to add the docket number and the topic of the rule for identification. The AFFH rule will have the following docket number:  Re: Docket No. FR-6250-P-01, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing  

Think of this as a barcode for your comment—you want to make sure federal government staff can see that your comment is in regard to the AFFH rule and not another rule that is also receiving comments. It is best practice to also bold this docket number identifier and subject of your comment so that it is easily seen.  

Greeting options 

While the greeting is not absolutely necessary, sometimes it is worth having to support the flow of your comments. Options include “Dear Madam/Sir” or “To Whom It May Concern.” Do not spend too much time deciphering the best greeting. Simply starting your comment and writing down your thoughts is most important here!  

Introduction 

Several key elements must be integrated within the introduction. The introduction first and foremost is an opportune moment to introduce yourself or the organization you represent.  

• If you are writing from an organization, provide some information on your mission and the type of work you do.  

• If you are writing individually, introduce yourself with a first name, pseudonym, or as a “resident” and provide your credentials or experiences with local housing issues that will help readers understand your background and perspective for what you will cover. You can continue to the section of this toolkit titled, “Writing as an Individual,” to help you with your writing.  

When you are putting forward your reaction to the rule, whether you are in agreement or disagreement with how the rule is currently presented, you should provide information on why you agree or disagree. During this section you can also bring forward HUD’s mission and discuss how you feel the proposed rule fits or does not fit in with their stated mission.

Overview  

The overview of a comment allows you to concisely package all of your main points into the beginning of your comment. This section should not be too long (a paragraph or two at the most) because it should give readers a brief opportunity to understand what your position is on the strength of the rule to pursue equity, what your major concerns are, and the alternatives you propose. This overview should serve as the top-line points you want a reviewer to take away from your comment. 

Introduce your location or your scope of work  

It will be helpful for reviewers of comments to understand what part of your life experiences or work informs the positions you take in your comment. Depending on the scope of your work, if you are writing on behalf of a community-based organization, you should take some time to provide two to three sentences about the barriers to fair housing and the opportunity you see within your community. Be sure to provide information and cite your data sources.  

Some possible topics to write about include the following:  

• Access/proximity to jobs  
• Availability of affordable housing across housing tenure types 
• Concentrated poverty  
• Discrimination based on a previous arrest record 
• Environmental injustice or racism  
• Eviction rates  
• High unemployment  
• Housing accessible to community members with disabilities  
• Information about disparate achievement gaps from racially concentrated areas of poverty  
• Information on climate resiliency 
• Racial/ethnic segregation  
• Transportation inequities (i.e., access to public transportation) 

In this same section, write a quick account of your reaction to the rule, what you believe is addressed well, and the concerns you are going to address in the rest of your comment. For example: 

• Does the rule provide enough guidance to jurisdictions to create achievable AFFH goals or metrics?  
• Does the rule prioritize enough areas for local knowledge of AFFH issues to be incorporated? 
• Does the rule provide community engagement and participation mechanisms for local knowledge to inform future community development?  
• Does the rule have strong and realistic enforcement mechanisms?  
• Does the rule pay enough attention to combating racial inequities and other inequities experienced by members of protected classes (race, national origin, sex, religion, color, disability, and familial status)?   

• Communicate your stance on the strength of key pieces of the proposed rule to advance equitable housing futures.  

• Provide a rationale (with cited evidence) for why you are for or against the strength of any element of the draft rule.  

• Offer suggestions for improvement or provide perspectives on the pros and cons to elements of the rule. This is a critical section to include because constructive comments to improve the rule will matter substantially to the reviewers and policymakers at HUD. 

When you are putting forward your reaction to the rule, whether you are in agreement or disagreement with how the rule is currently presented, you should provide information on why you agree or disagree. You should then aim to support your claims for or against the current rule with evidence from quantitative and qualitative data sources, academic studies, reports, newspaper articles, and the experiences of people in your community or people whom you work with or serve. Be sure to also communicate why the research is important to consider in relation to the AFFH rule when discussing the evidence you put forward. During this section, you can also bring forward HUD’s mission and discuss how you feel the proposed rule fits or does not fit in with their stated mission.  

US Department of Housing and Urban Development Mission Statement:  

“HUD's mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes; utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business.” 

Finally, if you disagree with the strength of all, or parts, of the AFFH rule as drafted, you should offer your suggestions and policy options for HUD to integrate into the new final AFFH rule. However, if you are unsure of what alternatives to provide within your comment, simply providing your perspective on the benefits and limitations of other possible options in a discussion can also be useful. Here's an example:

You can keep the same format for a greeting and opening as outlined above for an organization, but the introduction will need to change slightly to incorporate your personal experiences. First, be sure that you give enough detail on the place that you call home—describe where is it and how long have you lived there. Next, provide some insight into who you are as a person and as a member of your community—explain what about your identity motivated you to comment on the AFFH draft rule. This is where you can bring in how housing inequities in your community have affected you, your loved ones, or your neighbors directly. Provide examples from your life if you are comfortable doing so. 

Reactions and Recommendations  

Based on the comment itself, formulate your reaction to the draft rule. Which parts need to be strengthened, and why?  You do not have to read the full document if you do not have the time, but we encourage you to at least review some high-level summaries to inform your perspectives and recommendations.  

• Do you think this rule does enough to help localities pursue fair, affordable, and accessible housing in your community?  

• What recommendations do you have?  

• What perspectives do you think are missing from the proposed AFFH rule?  

• Does the proposed AFFH rule align with your own personal or community values?   

Be sure that you are especially clear in this section because it will hold the main arguments that will help inform HUD’s decisions on the rule. If you are citing any research or data, be sure to cite your sources.  

Projected Community Impact  

Finally, if you work in your locality in a professional capacity as an organizer or volunteer with a community-based organization, or you just care about your community, be sure to mention the history of your work to support your community. Ultimately, providing this background will help to build credibility for how you believe the rule will affect you, your loved ones, and other community members. Clearly explain how you think the rule would impact your community and provide information to back up your claim through examples or data.