During the Obama-Biden administration in 2015 their Department of Housing and Urban Development added a new regulation to the 1968 Fair Housing Act called the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule which  would allow bureaucrats in Washington, in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to control zoning laws, to control the placement of transportation and business districts, even to some degree the drawing of school districts.  It would basically expand federal influence over suburbia.

The rule required participants to use a computer assessment tool to complete an “Assessment of Fair Housing” by answering 92 questions on fair housing issues, priorities and goals. The subjects included segregation, racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty, significant disparities in access to opportunity and disproportionate housing needs.

The current Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson, called this rule a “ruse for social engineering under the guise of desegregation -- essentially turning HUD into a national zoning board.” He said it was “unworkable and ultimately a waste of time for localities to comply with.” Earlier this month Dr. Carson revoked this rule and said it will be replaced by a new rule that reduces the burden of local jurisdictions to prove that they are actively taking steps to address historical patterns of racial segregation in order to qualify for HUD financing.

Even as Dr. Carson has taken action to remove this burdensome regulation Joe Biden has signed on to a plan that will take local control away from community planning using federal funding as leverage, reversing the change Dr. Carson just made. Biden’s plan is to “force suburban towns with single-family homes and minimum lot sizes to build high-density affordable housing smack in the middle of their leafy neighborhoods — local preferences and local control be damned.”

Is this what you want for your community?