HUD Mobile App Helps Minorities File Housing Complaints

In its ardent quest to even the playing field for minorities the Obama administration has unveiled a new housing discrimination application for mobile devices manufactured by the world’s biggest electronics company (hint: its logo is a fruit and its CEO sat next to the First Lady at the state of the union).

Financed by American taxpayers, the new housing discrimination app was developed by a special division inside the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with the help of a major information technology company headquartered in northern California. The Obama administration has not revealed specifics relating to costs, but Judicial Watch plans to request details from HUD involving the new app’s price tag and other relevant facts.

JW has been a leader in investigating HUD and it’s shenanigans to advance a blatantly leftwing agenda. Last fall JW sued HUD for records of the Obama administration’s meddling in a controversial Minnesota housing discrimination case involving a discredited legal standard known as “disparate impact.” Before that JW sued HUD to obtain records related to federal grants awarded to the scandal-plagued community organization (Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now—ACORN) that’s fleeced U.S. taxpayers out of millions.

The process involving the app will also be closely scrutinized. The goal, according to a HUD announcement, is to provide the public with a quick and easy way to learn about housing rights and to facilitate the process of filing housing discrimination complaints. It also aims to remind the housing industry about its “responsibilities” under the Fair Housing Act, the 1968 law enacted to promote integrated housing—by combatting housing segregation—during the civil rights movement.

Under both Democrat and Republican administrations HUD has failed to flex its muscle when it comes to discrimination against minorities, according to civil rights groups, and Obama vowed to change that when he moved into the White House. The president named an affordable housing advocate (Shaun Donovan) who specialized in housing vouchers and integration as HUD secretary and the agency quickly made desegregation its key focus. Leading the effort for Donovan is a civil rights attorney (John Trasvina) from a renowned leftist group, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF).

Donovan has traveled the country blaming segregation, isolation and poverty on government. Under his tenure HUD has created a number of costly programs to right the wrong. Shortly after taking his cabinet position, Donovan outlined these goals in an agency report that explains how to “build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination.” It asserts that an inclusive community is one in which all people—regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, disability or sexual orientation—have access to the same housing, transportation, health, education and employment opportunities.

The new mobile app is simply the latest of many programs to help fulfill this mission. Several “civil rights advocacy organizations” will join forces with HUD to spread the word about the new mobile app and help “individuals pursue their housing rights.” This will equip minorities throughout the nation with the information they need to “combat housing discrimination,” according to an assistant HUD secretary in charge of fair housing and equal opportunity.