Environmental justice has a natural connection to affordable housing programs. It remains, however, a broad and somewhat elusive term. There is no formal definition of environmental justice in US federal law. However, relevant agencies have developed working descriptions for the term. US EPA generally defines it as “fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies,” while the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) describes the term as “ensuring equal protection from environmental and health hazards and providing equal and meaningful opportunity to participate in the decision-making process to achieve a healthy environment.”
The underlying concepts of fairness and equal protection adopted by these agencies originate in a number of civil rights statutes and subsequent legal mechanisms. In particular, Title VI to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 established a federal benchmark for non-discrimination and it prohibits recipients of federal funding from discriminating based on race, color, or national origin in any program or activity. A few years later, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 expanded upon this mandate. The Fair Housing Act (Titles VIII and IX to the 1968 Act) prohibits discrimination as to the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, and sex. Continue Reading