How Republicans want to roll back Obama's fair housing legacy — and then some, Alvin Chang, Vox, February 17, 2017, available here

The US has a long history of discriminatory housing policies, which has entrenched communities of color in poor neighborhoods.

And the one tool the federal government has to push back against these segregation patterns is the Fair Housing Act — specifically the part that says local communities that receive federal funds for affordable housing must “affirmatively further” fair housing. But for much of the law’s lifetime, advocates say it has been toothless.

So two years ago, the Obama administration tackled this issue by creating a new rule that leveraged the growing amount of racial disparity data. This helped communities see invisible trends to set and meet fair housing goals, while also giving the feds a way to enforce the law.