Older news about racial quotas and preferences by HUD.

Agency Will Cut Funding Unless Minorities Move to Suburbs! (03/21/99)

Citing statistically dubious "suburban barriers to minority migration to the suburbs", the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has threatened to cut off federal housing funds (your tax dollars) to the Michigan township of Fenton located in Genesee County.

"Fenton Township Supervisor Carl Gabrielson recalls his first reaction to a federal study that concluded Genesee County was the third most segregated area in the state. "Frankly," he said, "I don't appreciate being called a racist."

"Among other things, last year's study by Joe Darden, professor of Geography and Urban Affairs at Michigan State University, concluded local governments must remove barriers that make it difficult for minorities to live in county suburbs." Prof. Darden's study failed to offer any supporting data which would prove that the fact that fewer minorities move into the suburbs is based in any way upon racial discrimination rather than upon low income or bad credit.

"But if Fenton Township and other county communities expect to continue receiving the $7.5 million in Community Development Block Grants [CDBG funds - your federal income tax dollars] they collectively get every year, they will be forced to do something about those [alleged] barriers.

"The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which ordered the study, is requiring government and business to take action to eliminate the barriers [such as low income, poor credit history, inability to obtain a mortage, or sufficient income to support a move to the suburbs without providing any federal funds toward this effort] or lose the CDBG funds. Although some believe the threat will not be carried out, it is prompting officials to take a long, serious look at whether there is a problem providing housing to minorities and the disabled." The HUD study failed to look at the underlying reasons that minorities and disabled could not afford a move to the suburbs, nor did the study suggest the use of federal funds to help minorities and the disabled qualify for loans or other financial aid to assidt the aggrieved groups in moving to the suburbs. HUD seems to be of the opinion that this unfunded federal mandate should come out of local taxpayers' pockets.

(Excerpted from the 03/21/99 Flint Journal story by Edward L. Ronders)

[Last Known link to original news item:
http://fl.mlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/stories/thestudy.frm ]

END of (4) HUD Older News Stories.