The Department of Housing and Urban Development

Abstract
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has developed programs designed to help out the less fortunate for years and protect them from discrimination. Administrative law is especially valuable to agencies such The Department of Housing and Urban Development as it addresses fairness and responsibility issues with governing laws. Court cases help to make change where needed when it can be shown the system has failed or if one’s rights have been violated.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development The Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) manages and is responsible for the running of programs that provide housing as well as community development assistance. The HUD agency also works to ensure fair and equal housing opportunity for all people. An example of one of the programs is the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which is part of HUD, is a government agency which objectives are to improve housing conditions and standards as well as provide a house financing system with insurance of home mortgage loans. Congress created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in 1934. The FHA became a part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Housing in 1965. The HUD agency and issues it covers is very broad so administrative law is a must for this agency to ensure there is fair housing and equal opportunity. Administrative law covers several areas such as rule-making, agency discretion, test and inspection, mediation and arbitration, the requirements of fairness, due processes, hearings, equal protection, affirmative action and diversity in the housing market. Administrative law was created so that these fair procedures are put in place as well as external constraints can be placed as well to protect people’s rights. The laws are set in place in order to protect people from discrimination whether it is age, race, culture, gender or handicap. While the Civil Rights Act of 1866 was set to create fair housing policy but had no federal enforcement in place when the policy was violated. So the finally the Fair Housing Law of 1968 was place into effect to protect buyers and renters from discrimination with the main goal to make it unlawful to refuse to rent or sell to anyone due to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or handicap. While sexual orientation and gender identity are not included in the prohibited status, a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender may have protections for discrimination under FHA rules based on gender and disability: A gay man is evicted because his landlord believes he will infect other tenants with HIV/AIDS. That situation may constitute illegal disability discrimination under the Fair Housing Act because the man is perceived to have a disability, HIV/AIDS. A property manager refuses to rent an apartment to a prospective tenant who is transgender. If the housing denial is because of the prospective tenant's non-conformity with gender stereotypes, it may constitute illegal discrimination on the basis of sex under the Fair Housing Act. A landlord who discriminates against a female prospective tenant because she wears masculine clothes and engages in other physical expressions that are stereotypically male may engage in discrimination based on gender in violation of the FHA. Gender-based discrimination is prohibited. For example, a landlord who evicts a gay man because the landlord believes the tenant has HIV and will infect other tenants may engage in disability discrimination in violation of the FHA. Disability discrimination is prohibited. (Chin, 2012)
While not everyone will be able to qualify for a mortgage, there are laws set into place to ensure the denial is legit and not based on discrimination. The Fair Housing Act also covers discrimination in mortgage lending and makes it unlawful to engage in unfair practices with protected classes of people such as if the lender refuses to make a mortgage loan, refuses to provide information regarding loans, impose different terms or conditions on a loan, such as different interest rates, points, or fees, discriminate in appraising property, refuses to purchase a loan or set different terms or conditions for purchasing a loan (Donovan, 2014).
While there are set rules in place to ensure discrimination is not used, agency discretion can be used when a something happens outside of the normal situation. An agency has discretion when it has the authority to choose between two or more alternatives (Hall, 2012, p 45). One example is that public housing agency can evict a tenant if there is drug activity in the home regardless even if they did not know that the drug activity was happening or the agency can use discretion to decide if there is another route to go with the tenant other than eviction. In 2002, the case of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development v. Rucker and Oakland Housing Authority v. Rucker was to determine the right to an innocent tenant defense in public housing to protect innocent tenants from eviction for crimes committed by family or persons known to them: Public housing tenants sued the local and federal housing authority, stating that federal law did not authorize evictions from public housing for drug-related activity which was unknown to the tenant. Legal Momentum contributed an amicus brief with Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP and the Brennan Center for Justice, arguing that Public Housing Authorities routinely use one-strike rules (such as the one in this case) to evict tenants who are victims of crimes in their homes, perpetrated by uninvited guests. The Supreme Court did not agree. The Court ruled that federal law gives local public housing agencies discretion to evict tenants for drug-related activity, whether or not the tenant was aware of the activity. (legalmomentum.org, 2013)
Agency discretion helps to protect the agency side whereas due process is set up to protect people’s rights. Due process is a broad concept to protect people from arbitrary government conduct as the Due Process Clauses mandate that state and government treat all persons with a minimum amount of fairness when taking life, liberty, or property from them (Hall, 2012, p 62). One example is the case of Goldberg v. Kelly in 1970 where it was questioned if a state procedure that terminates welfare benefits without a formal evidentiary hearing violates the due process clause. This case covered welfare recipients losing their aid without sufficient notice or being granted a pre-termination evidentiary hearing which denied their right of due process under the 14th Amendment. The Court determined that welfare benefits are a matter of statutory entitlement for persons qualified to receive them and procedural due process is applicable to their termination: The court held that the state must hold an evidentiary hearing before benefits are terminated. The court determined first what sort of right was at issue; and they determined that the future stream of welfare benefits are statutory entitled rather than simply being privileges. While the state argued that the current procedure was administratively efficient, the court argued that the right to future aid superseded such efficiency interests. The court believed welfare recipients were entitled to a more formal hearing, where they could be heard in person or through an appointed representative and have the right to cross-examine confronting witnesses. Because of this, the court required the state have to pre-termination evidentiary hearing so that welfare benefits, which the recipients used as a basis to support their livelihood, would not be arbitrarily denied. (casebriefsummary.com, 2012)
In addition to guaranteeing due process, the Equal protection Clause is part of the Fourteen Amendment also declares that no state shall deny any person within the jurisdiction the equal protection of laws. The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has been interpreted to extend the same limitation to the federal government as equal protection is concerns with laws and actions that classify and treat people differently (Hall, 2012, p 62). Equal protection prevents landlords from picking and choosing what they think is right and instead sets a standard of right and wrong so everyone has the choice where to live without fear of discrimination. In 2011 there was a case in New York where two landlords were found guilty of violating the Fair Housing Act due to not allowing a veteran to have a doctor-prescribed therapeutic dog for his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in his apartment: In early March, HUD charged two landlords in New York with violating the Fair Housing Act because they would not allow a disabled veteran, suffering from Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), to have a doctor-prescribed therapeutic dog in his apartment. Once the veteran filed a housing discrimination complaint, the landlords allegedly threatened to evict him from his apartment. The case was reviewed and the verdict ruled in favor of the veteran, stating that the actions of the landlords were indeed a violation of the Fair Housing Act. The landlords received a $16,000 penalty for each violation of the act. Although the apartment complex had a "no-pets" policy, according to the Fair Housing Act, the landlords should have altered the rules for the veteran because he had a disability, especially since the accommodation in question was a reasonable request. John Trasvina, the Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, said it is their duty to ensure that veterans "have access to safe and affordable housing, free from discrimination." HUD's prompt action on this matter shows that the housing needs of veterans are heard and are met accordingly. Just as with anyone else, they do not deserve to be discriminated against. (usveternsmagazine.com, 2011)
There is also the policy of affirmative action which is meant to advantage historically disadvantaged groups which some people think it is a violation of equal protection whereas others think it is a means by which greater equality can be achieved (Hall, 2012, p 90). HUD is imposing a new rule called the “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” in order to track diversity in neighborhoods in order to push for change in areas it deems is discriminatory. The intent is to use the data found to loosen up zoning laws and allow more public housing in better zip codes as far as the quality of life, housing and schools. The people for it see it as way to identify and help the area that do not access to not only good schools but better employment and environment while some see it as forced racial integration. One of the pros to it is that it will help to educate renters or buyers of the overall picture of the negatives and positives of neighborhoods instead of only getting little or no information from rental agencies or realtors who may not disclosed certain info to them and steer them to less than desirable areas: HUD will provide states, local governments, insular areas, and public housing agencies (PHAs), as well as the communities they serve, with data on patterns of integration and segregation; racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty; access to education, employment, low-poverty, transportation, and environmental health, among other critical assets; disproportionate housing needs based on the classes protected under the Fair Housing Act; data on individuals with disabilities and families with children; and discrimination. From these data, program participants will evaluate their present environment to assess fair housing issues, identify the primary determinants that account for those issues, and set forth fair housing priorities and goals. (Powell, 2013)
Just as there are laws to protect people there are regulations that help to make agencies more transparent and accountable to the public such as public access to HUD records under FOIA. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) provides access to all FMCS and other federal agency records except for those records (or portions of those records) that are protected from disclosure by any of nine exemptions or three exclusions (reasons for which an agency may withhold records from a requester): The exemptions cover: classified national defense and foreign relations information, internal agency rules and practices, information that is prohibited from disclosure by another law, trade secrets and other confidential business information, inter-agency or intra-agency communications that are protected by legal privileges, information involving matters of personal privacy, certain information compiled for law enforcement purposes, information relating to the supervision of financial institutions, and geological information on wells. The three exclusions, which are rarely used, pertain to especially sensitive law enforcement and national security matters. (foia.gov, 2011)
Administrative law is important to not only the agencies that help people but to the people they help as its purpose it to set and enforce rules that ensure fairness, responsibility and accountability and recourse if there are violations. Of course nothing is every carved in stone as if a certain case can show enough evidence for change then the rules can be revised. HUD programs are meant to help out people but administrative law is there to ensure the rules are set and followed in order to protect everyone involved.

References
Case Brief: Goldberg v. Kelly (2012, Dec). Retrieved from http://www.casebriefsummary.com/goldberg-v-kelly/
Chin, N. (2012, Jun). Fair Housing Federal Law: A Fact Sheet for LGBT older adults. Retrieved from http://www.lgbtagingcenter.org/resources/resource.cfm?r=400
Donovan, S. (2014, Apr). HUD: Fair Lending. Retrieved from http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/topics/fair_lending
Hall, D.E. (2012). Administrative Law: Bureaucracy in a Democracy (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Legal Momentum: HUD v. Rucker and OHA v. Rucker. (2009-2013). Retrieved from https://www.legalmomentum.org/legal-cases/hud-v-rucker-and-oha-v-rucker
Powell, B. (2013, Jul). Right-Wing Media Attack HUD Diversity Program: "Tyranny Is Here". Retrieved from http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/07/24/right-wing-media-attack-hud-diversity-program-t/195044
US Veteran Magazine: Equal Rights For Disabled Veterans: Because You Served. (2011, Dec). Retrieved from http://www.usveteransmagazine.com/article/equal-rights-disabled-veterans-because-you-served