Amid a national housing crisis, the Biden administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development produced guidelines encouraging property owners to forgo some fair housing practices to favor Afghan refugees, the Trump administration argues in a new directive terminating previous guidelines.

The Center Square obtained a HUD directive from the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity rescinding the guidance document, “Operation Allies Welcome: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Fair Housing Issues” and withdrawing from a FHEO guidance document “Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Renting to Refugees and Eligible Newcomers,” which the agency claims violates the Fair Housing Act.

HUD Secretary Scott Turner argues the Biden-era guidelines prioritized nearly 200,000 Afghan refugees who were admitted following the 2021 pullout of American forces from Afghanistan by encouraging landlords and property owners to forgo credit checks, occupancy limitations, and engage in targeted marketing toward Afghans.

“After President Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, his administration made a bad situation worse by prioritizing housing assistance for Afghan refugees, who we now know were unvetted and unchecked,” Turner told The Center Square. “Since day one, our mission has been clear: to serve the American people and end the misuse and abuse of American taxpayer-funded resources. That is why we rescinded this Operation Allies Welcome guidance, which encouraged landlords and property owners to violate federal civil rights law to protect Afghan refugees. Under President Trump’s leadership, the days of putting Americans last is over.”

The Biden-era guidance supported landlords and property managers to “forgo credit checks for Afghan refugees,” creating an exemption due to their immigration status. The guidelines noted “verification of ability to pay would appear unnecessary since the purpose of the credit check would be to provide a reasonable basis for believing that a tenant’s rent will be paid” in cases where a refugee agency would “provide full rent payments.”

Through the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), most Afghan refugees and parolees were eligible to receive housing vouchers for HUD Public Housing and Section 8 programs.

When asked if those individuals are still receiving housing benefits, a HUD official told The Center Square that the department “is working in coordination with appropriate agencies to align the Department’s guidance related to immigration status to ensure taxpayer-funded benefits are not used for any unintended purpose.”

In addition to forgoing credit checks, the guidance allowed for landlords and property managers to make exceptions to occupancy standards or limits to allow “larger refugee or parolee families, or connected kinship groups to reside together.”

“Unreasonable occupancy limits on the number of persons who may occupy a unit may violate the Act’s prohibition on discrimination against families with children. HUD guidance advises that as a general rule, an occupancy policy of two persons per bedroom is reasonable under the Act, but that the reasonableness of such a policy may depend on specific facts and circumstances, including the size and configuration of the unit and sleeping areas. The guidance describes the factors that are used to determine whether a housing provider’s occupancy limits may discriminate because of familial status,” according to the Biden-era guidance.

The document also encouraged targeted marketing toward Afghan populations, arguing they may be among the “least likely to apply for housing without special outreach efforts.” The targeted advertising could include marketing materials in Dari and Pashto (prominent Afghan languages); however, “marketing to the Afghan population should be part of a larger non-selective advertising campaign to persons with a range of protected characteristics.” In areas with other large immigrant communities, such as Somali or Hmong, they should advertise in all languages “as part of a larger non-selective advertising campaign,” the guidance added.

The latest directive issued by Craig Trainor, assistant secretary of HUD’s FHEO office, claims the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome Guidance invited “landlords and property managers to unlawfully favor Afghan refugees over native-born American rental applicants,” underscoring the credit check exemption for all immigrants.

Trainor argues the Biden-era guidance “emboldens housing providers to discriminate on the basis of national origin – namely, by giving preferential treatment to Afghan refugees over American citizens.”

“Interagency FAQ contains interpretations and conclusions of law inconsistent with the Fair Housing Act and Title VI. Accordingly, those documents never should have been issued,” Trainor concluded.

(The Center Square/Sarah Roderick-Fitch)