Portland-Area County To Eliminate All Race-Based Housing Programs as Part of Agreement With Trump Administration

Multnomah County, Ore., agreed on Wednesday to eliminate all race-based housing programs as part of a voluntary compliance agreement with the Trump administration, which had alleged that the county's "culturally specific" services—including special apartments for the "BIPOC community"—violated the Fair Housing Act.

The county, which encompasses most of Portland, had previously agreed to remove questions about race and sexual orientation from a screening tool—first reported by the Washington Free Beacon—used to prioritize applicants for housing assistance. Wednesday's agreement covers a wider range of programs and requires the county to rescore pending applications for homeless services. It will also require all employees of the county's Homeless Services Department to complete four hours of fair housing training.

Scott Turner, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said the agreement would help the county's most vulnerable residents.

"HUD is ensuring that local governments use federal dollars to serve vulnerable citizens based on need not new forms of unlawful DEI discrimination," Turner told the Free Beacon. "This agreement shows that no recipient of HUD funds is above the law."

The agreement comes as Multnomah County is fending off a class-action lawsuit from a disabled woman, Michele Mei, who was denied rent relief under the county's race-based prioritization system. That system gave more points for expressing interest in "culturally specific services" than for having a disability, causing Mei to narrowly miss the cutoff for assistance.

Applicants who did meet the cutoff were in some cases referred to "culturally specific" apartments for "BIPOC" residents. Though the county later claimed that those apartments were open to all, the Fair Housing Act prohibits advertisements that indicate "any preference" for tenants based on race or national origin. Wednesday's agreement requires the county to review all housing ads to "ensure that they are inclusive, non-discriminatory, and do not discriminate based on race, color, and national origin."

"Discrimination does not become lawful because it is smuggled into a scoring system, screening tool, or bureaucratic workaround," said Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Craig Trainor. "I commend Multnomah County for dispensing with political theater and meeting its obligations under federal civil rights laws. We urge all recipients of federal funds to follow its lead."

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