Title
Approving and authorizing the execution of the Voluntary Compliance Agreement between the City of Saint Paul, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Metropolitan Interfaith Council on Affordable Housing.
Body
WHEREAS, on July 27, 2015, the City of Saint Paul received a complaint from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) that was filed by the Metropolitan Interfaith Council on Affordable Housing (“MICAH”) alleging that the City violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and Section 109 of the Housing and Community Development Act (the “Complaint”); and
WHEREAS, the Complaint alleged that the City discriminated on the basis of race and ethnicity and violated the City’s duty to affirmatively further fair housing; and
WHEREAS, the City filed a response to the Complaint denying all allegations; and
WHEREAS, HUD has not done any investigation and has made no findings that the City has discriminated in any way or failed to affirmatively further fair housing; and
WHEREAS, the City is part of a group of thirteen metropolitan area entitlement jurisdictions called the Fair Housing Implementation Council (FHIC), which prepared a regional analysis of impediments to fair housing (“AI”) in 2015; and
WHEREAS, the AI is required by HUD as part of the City’s duty to affirmatively further fair housing; and
WHEREAS, the City and the FHIC were planning to augment the AI with a more detailed analysis of integration and segregation in the region before the City received the Complaint; and
WHEREAS, at HUD’s request, the City and the FHIC put that analysis on hold while HUD sought to negotiate a settlement of the Complaint; and
WHEREAS, the City, HUD, and MICAH have reached a settlement of the Complaint, and that settlement is reflected in the Voluntary Compliance Agreement (“VCA”) attached hereto and incorporated by reference; and
WHEREAS, in the VCA the City agrees to participate in a ...
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