The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which issue mortgage-backed securities, to ensure diversity in their workforce and include diverse businesses in their business activities. From 2011-2019, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac slightly increased the number of women and minorities on their boards of directors and in senior management and recruited diverse work...

Environmental justice seeks to address the disproportionately high health and environmental risks found among low-income and minority communities by seeking their fair treatment and involvement in environmental policy. California's mostly minority and low-income community of West Oakland, for example, is surrounded by 3 freeways and a port. Its residents are exposed to diesel air pollution 3 times...

Do women pay more than men for similar consumer products, giving rise to what some call a “Pink Tax”? After controlling for product size and other factors, prices for half of the personal care items we looked at are higher for women, including deodorants and fragrances. Some men's items cost more, such as razors. Whether the price differences are due to gender bias is unclear. Ad costs and co...

Veterans returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan could increase demand for affordable rental housing. Households with low incomes (80 percent or less of the area median income) generally are eligible to receive rental assistance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) housing choice voucher, public housing, and project-based programs. However, because rental assistance...

This document presents the results of GAO's survey of public housing agencies that manage developments that house primarily the elderly and non-elderly persons with disabilities. The purpose of the survey was to (1) collect data on physical and social characteristics that constitute aspects of "severe distress," (2) verify HUD data from the PIC and REAC databases, and (3) collect data about ways i...

Each year, the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) and related state and local Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP) agencies receive and investigate several thousand complaints of housing discrimination. These activities, including required conciliation attempts, are directed by HUD's standards, which are based on law, regulatio...

A recent GAO report assessed the thoroughness of the process used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to resolve complaints of housing discrimination (GAO-06-79). As part of that study, GAO did a telephone survey, which is reproduced here, of a sample of complainants in housing discrimination cases that were investigated and closed by HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opp...

This testimony discusses the results of GAO's review of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) technical assistance and capacity-building programs. Technical assistance programs can be defined as training designed to improve the performance or management of program recipients, such as teaching one-on-one procurement regulations to housing authority staff. Capacity building can be...

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division's (CRT) selection of cases and reasons matters were closed.GAO noted that: (1) it reviewed case selection in CRT's Housing and Civil Enforcement, Employment Litigation, and Voting sections; (2) according to officials in these sections, CRT does not have written procedures for selecting cases to purs...

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the complaint alleging that the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Inspector General (IG), Susan Gaffney, had discriminated against the Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Investigations because of his race, focusing on whether: (1) HUD had awarded contracts concerning the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaint to outside...