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A senior Trump administration housing official is accusing Boston officials of racial discrimination by prioritizing closing racial homeownership gaps and trying to prevent displacement in minority-heavy neighborhoods.
Craig W. Trainor, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity, informed Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and city Chief of Housing Shiela Dillon of the investigation in a letter Thursday. The New York Times first reported the letter.
“No person or entity—the City of Boston included—is permitted to violate civil rights protections in the name of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI). As you are aware, the Trump Administration is dedicated to protecting the civil rights of all Americans,” Trainor’s letter said. “At your office’s direction, however, City officials have set out to smuggle ‘racial equity into every layer of operations in City government.’ To this dubious end, the City of Boston (the City) has developed and intends to implement discriminatory housing policies in violation of the Fair Housing Act.”
The letter accuses Boston of breaking federal law by had prioritizing people of color in its affordable housing strategy and programs, and encouraged banks and real estate developers to work with those communities, rather than with all low-income households.
“Boston will never abandon our commitment to fair and affordable housing, and we will defend our progress to keep Bostonians in their homes against these unhinged attacks from Washington,” a city spokesperson said in a statement
The HUD letter pointed to promises in the city’s fair housing assessment to “target homebuyer outreach” at “Black and Latinx families” and pressure “banks and mortgage lenders to increase their lending in communities of color.” Additionally, it noted that the city’s most recent housing strategy document states that it aspires that “at least 65%” of “opportunities to buy homes through City of Boston initiatives” should go to “BIPOC” [black, indigenous, or person of color] households.
Boston has a long history with racial discrimination in housing that left neighborhoods strongly divided along racial lines, and with much lower homeownership rates among its residents of color than among its white residents. In addition, housing researchers say, the lower incomes of many residents of color mean these disparities are perpetuated since they have a harder time affording the city’s expensive housing stock.
Trainor cited a 2023 Supreme Court case that struck down affirmative action in Harvard University’s college admissions process as justification that “outright racial balancing is patently unconstitutional.” The Trump administration has cited the case in other instances as it tries to redefine the historical meaning of “race-based discrimination” to include what it claims is discrimination against white Americans.
Anti-Displacement Plan Targeted
The letter also accuses Boston of trying to “revive government-sponsored redlining” through the city’s Anti-Displacement Action Plan.
The plan notes that high-risk areas for displacement share similar characteristics, including “higher proportions of renters, cost-burdened households, non-native English speakers and non-white populations, and higher rates of investor activity in housing.” Additionally, low-risk areas for displacement tend to “be whiter, and have higher proportions of college-educated, homeowning, and native English-speaking residents.”
The plan proposed to prioritize residents from these high-risk areas for access to new affordable housing units. And the administration and other top city leaders have sought to focus new affordable housing construction in these same, minority-heavy at-risk neighborhoods, Trainor’s letter claims.
“Because City officials have brazenly endorsed, outlined, and implemented a city-wide system for allocating scarce housing resources based on race, color and/or national origin, the Department’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO), along with FHEO’s Office of Special Investigations, is investigating the City for unlawful housing discrimination and its compliance with Title VI,” the letter states.
The investigation could result in the filing of charges or a federal lawsuit against the city, Trainor wrote.
