The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has taken a swipe at Oakland County, the state's second most-populous county.
HUD is accusing the county of “discriminatory” housing policies that may have exacerbated housing segregation in Metro Detroit, which is the worst in the nation, Bridge Magazine reports.
The federal agency’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity wrote a letter to county officials in April, accusing them of steering $171 million in housing aid since 1989 to homeowners at the expense of renters, reports Mike Wilkinson, Chastity Pratt Dawsey:
HUD claims the county rarely spends money helping rentals and in fact bars communities from spending certain grant money on multi-family homes. Doing so had a “discriminatory effect on non-white households,” who are more likely to be renters, according to the letter.
“The County may be contributing to the perpetuation of segregation within the Detroit region,” according to a 20-page letter addressed to County Executive L. Brooks Patterson.
If Oakland County doesn’t address the issue, HUD says it will find the county out of compliance with federal rules, jeopardizing more than $7 million in annual funding.
