In what is merely the latest middle finger flipped to the law-abiding taxpayers of this country, President Barack Obama‘s administration warned on Monday that landlords refusing to rent property to convicted criminals may be guilty of racial discrimination.
According to The Daily Caller, Obama’s Department of Housing and Urban Development said that refusing to rent to an individual with a criminal record could be construed as racial discrimination, since racial minorities make up a disproportionate amount of those with criminal records in this country.
“The Fair Housing Act prohibits both intentional housing discrimination and housing practices that have an unjustified discriminatory effect because of race, national origin, or other protected characteristics,” read the newly released guideline from HUD Secretary Julian Castro.
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“Because of widespread racial and ethnic disparities in the U.S. criminal justice system, criminal history-based restrictions on access to housing are likely disproportionately to burden African-Americans and Hispanics,” the guideline continued. “While the Act does not prohibit housing providers from appropriately considering criminal history information when making housing decisions, arbitrary and overbroad criminal history-related bans are likely to lack a legally sufficient justification.”
New guidance: HUD will use the law to protect the rights of folks who’ve been arrested or who are returning after serving time. #NLIHClive
— Julián Castro (@SecretaryCastro) April 4, 2016
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It has been estimated that roughly 25 percent of the country has some sort of criminal record, ranging from mere arrests with no charges to felony convictions with long prison sentences. HUD was correct in noting that this percentage of criminality is not spread equally across the different racial groups.
Most notably, while blacks make up only about 12 percent of America’s total population, they make up more than 36 percent of the nation’s prison population.
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HUD did point out that landlords are permitted to bar an individual with a criminal record from renting property from them, but will now have to provide some sort of evidence for the rejection above merely noting their criminal record, or be found in violation of the Fair Housing Act, which can bring fines ranging from thousands to millions of dollars.
This is just the latest effort by Obama’s HUD to promote a liberal brand of social and racial justice through its rules and regulations.
Another example would be the ongoing pressure on wealthy cities and suburbs to force them to open up Section 8 low-income subsidized housing projects in the nicest neighborhoods — you know, to promote racial equality by making everyone live in an equally miserable neighborhood.
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