Throughout the Fair Housing Act’s history, one of its core applications has been to exclusionary zoning and other practices that raise unnecessary barriers to housing choice – from Senator Mondale’s concern over "the refusal of suburbs and other communities to accept low-income housing" to the discussion of this issue by the Supreme Court in Inclusive Communities Project v. Texas last year. Last week, the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the Department of Housing and Urban Development released a joint statement describing the Fair Housing Act’s application to land use and zoning laws, noting that this field of regulation is "traditionally reserved to state and local governments, except to the extent that it conflicts with requirements imposed by the Fair Housing Act or other federal laws." The statement describes applicable law on intentional discrimination, disparate impact, and reasonable accommodations. The section on intent will aid the public in understanding that "[a] land use or zoning practice may be intentionally discriminatory even if there is no personal bias or animus on the part of individual government officials."
(Source: PRRAC)