Amid President Donald Trump’s threats to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minneapolis to quell rising protests following the recent shooting death of Renee Good by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced it is launching a fair housing investigation into the city.
Craig Trainor, assistant secretary of the Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity office at HUD that has been gutted by the Trump administration’s federal workforce reductions, alleges that “racial favoritism” in Minneapolis rental and housing policies violates the Fair Housing Act, a 1968 civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, religion, gender and other characteristics.
“As a result of Minneapolis’s racialized housing policy, I have directed the Office of Special Investigations to investigate Minneapolis for potential fair housing violations and its compliance with Title VI,” wrote Trainor in a letter addressed to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey dated Jan. 15.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of racial or national origin for programs and activities that receive federal funding. Minneapolis city departments that HUD said it will be investigating include the Community Planning and Economic Development and the Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging departments.
More specifically, the letter cites the “Minneapolis 2040” plan and the Strategic and Racial Equity Action Plan as programs HUD says prioritize housing resources based on race and national origin rather than need.
“For example, your Community Planning and Economic Development department will prioritize ‘rental housing for Black, Indigenous, People of Color and Immigrant communities’ by ‘leveraging [its] rental licensing authority,’” wrote Trainor. “That is not going to fly.”
In a press release announcing the investigation on Friday, HUD Secretary Scott Turner called Minnesota “ground zero for fraud and corruption because they have chosen to ignore the law to serve a cynical political agenda.”
“HUD will not stand for illegal racial and ethnic preferences that deny Americans their right to equal protection under the law,” Turner added.
Frey’s office has not responded to Scotsman Guide’s request for comment. An email to the city’s Community Planning and Economic Development Department was acknowledged as received, but no response to Scotsman Guide’s questions was returned by the time of publication.
