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ADMINISTRATION - Administrative Services Director Dava Kohlman and Lorie Adams, Adams Ashby Group
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Requested Action(s)
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a) PRESENTATION - Receive presentation to affirmatively further fair housing through adoption of a resolution and dissemination of information provided
b) RESOLUTION - Request adoption of a resolution by the Board of Supervisors of the County of Tehama, State of California, to adopt the resolution to affirmatively further fair housing
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Financial Impact:
There is no financial impact related to the adoption of this resolution.
Background Information:
The goal of Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) is to combat Housing discrimination, eliminate racial bias, undo historic patterns of segregation, and lift barriers that restrict access in order to foster inclusive communities and achieve racial equity, fair housing choice, and opportunity for all Californians. During Fair Housing Month, the County of Tehama is prioritizing this goal. By adopting this resolution, the County will confirm that priority and continue the process of supporting access to job opportunities, housing, and quality education while simultaneously reducing impacts to mental and physical health of community members that have historically experienced limitations based on race, sexual orientation, disability status, or other protected characteristics.
Discriminatory government policies, exclusionary tactics, and disparate treatment have long been key components of the housing system and have encouraged spatial inequality based on race. For decades, systemic redlining, restrictive covenants in private land sales, and residential segregation restricted many groups, particularly communities of color, from accessing opportunity and meaningful fair housing choice.
In 2018, the California State Legislature passed AB 686 to expand upon the fair housing requirements and protections outlined in the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). The law:
• requires all state and local public agencies to facilitate deliberate action to explicitly address, combat, and relieve disparities resulting from past patterns of segregation to foster more inclusive communities.
• creates new requirements that apply to all housing elements due for revision on or after January 1, 2021.
The passage of AB 686 protects the requirement to affirmatively further fair housing within California state law, regardless of future federal actions. It also preserves the strong policy in the U.S. Department of Housing and Community Development’s (HUD) Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule as published in the Federal Register in 2015.
As of January 1, 2019, AB 686 proactively applies the obligation to affirmatively further fair housing to all public agencies in California. Public agencies must now examine existing and future policies, plans, programs, rules, practices, and related activities and make proactive changes to promote more inclusive communities.
DEFINITION
Meaningful actions, in addition to combating discrimination, that overcome patterns of segregation and foster inclusive communities free from barriers that restrict access to opportunity based on protected characteristics. Specifically, affirmatively furthering fair housing means taking meaningful actions that, taken together, address significant disparities in housing needs and in access to opportunity, replacing segregated living patterns with truly integrated and balanced living patterns, transforming racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty into areas of opportunity, and fostering and maintaining compliance with civil rights and fair housing laws. The duty to affirmatively further fair housing extends to all of a public agency’s activities and programs relating to housing and community development.