The National Fair Housing Alliance and a high Democrat are criticizing the brand new chief of a federal fair housing workplace over his alleged troubling record concerning civil rights.
Craig Trainor was confirmed Wednesday because the assistant secretary for the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity on the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Senators confirmed Trainor and over 100 different Trump administration nominees in a partisan line vote carried out regardless of the federal government shutdown.
Republicans of the Senate Banking Committee congratulated Trainor, stating he’ll head HUD’s efforts to “be certain that all Americans have entry to housing nationwide.” The Department, whose web site nonetheless touts a controversial shutdown message, stated it was engaged on a remark Thursday afternoon with its public affairs workplace working in a restricted capability.
Trainor comes from the Department of Education, the place his actions because the performing assistant secretary for civil rights, significantly concerning a decree concerning range, fairness, and inclusion, have drawn scrutiny.
Before Trainor’s arrival, the FHEO final month realigned its enforcement priorities, with HUD erasing many Biden and Obama-era tips. The workplace has additionally apparently diminished its workers by lots of of staff this 12 months, in line with federal paperwork.
Criticism echoes bigger complaints about Trump administration
The new fair housing boss is a licensed legal professional and GOP official, having labored on the America First Policy Institute below then-Florida legal professional basic Pam Bondi. In February Trainor penned a “Dear Colleague” letter suggesting the withholding of funding for establishments over their range, fairness and inclusion practices.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sued the DOE and Trainor over that decree, and a federal courtroom in April prevented the division from implementing the letter. The National Fair Housing Alliance in a press release Wednesday accused Trainor of weaponizing the DOE’s civil rights authorities.
“It is deeply regarding that the Senate confirmed Craig Trainor to be the administration’s high fair housing official with out even holding an individualized vote, a lot much less scrutinizing his troubling record,” stated NFHA Executive Vice President Nikitra Bailey in a press launch.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the rating member of the Senate Banking Committee, in a press release stated HUD Secretary Scott Turner and Trainor should reply for the administration’s “makes an attempt to dismantle civil rights safety in housing.”
The NFHA claimed HUD introduced it will not absolutely implement the Fair Housing Act. In a memo September 16 by a FHEO official the regulator reiterated its enforcement efforts, however eliminated 21 steering issuances from 2009 to 2023. The memo recommended Democrat administrations prioritized “novel and tenuous” theories of discrimination on subjects like appraisal bias.
The fair housing group additionally accused the administration of eliminating “a lot” of the workers at FHEO. A current Politico report pointed to a current HUD shutdown plan indicating 315 full-time staff on the workplace, down from the 572 described in a 2023 plan.
Another archived HUD doc states there have been 647 full-time staff at FHEO in 2024. HUD has not publicly confirmed whether or not it is laid off swaths of staff as different areas of the administration have deliberate. The Department of Government Efficiency earlier this 12 months touted widespread terminations of vendor contracts on the regulator.
