Richard Blumenthal, the senior U.S. senator from Connecticut, sent a letter last week to Acting U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Adrianne Todman asking why what he describes as a “backlog” of housing discrimination complaints has yet to be addressed.
The letter, first reported by local Connecticut outlet CT Insider, describes the lag in investigations related to such complaints that impact prospective homeowners and renters both within the state and nationwide, Blumenthal said.
“HUD investigations of these complaints are taking years to conclude, leaving the tenant or prospective homeowner without recourse during this period,” Blumenthal said. “Simply, justice delayed is justice denied. Therefore, I am requesting an explanation as to why HUD has failed to provide adequate resources to effectively and expeditiously investigate and resolve these pending complaints.”
Blumenthal went on to request an analysis of the root causes of such a backlog, and what steps Todman feels should be taken to reduce it and “provide impacted individuals with timely relief,” he said.
CT Insider previously reported that the Connecticut legislature has not passed any meaningful legislation designed to deal with housing discrimination issues, leading civil rights attorneys in the state to file a lawsuit against both HUD and the state governor’s office.
“At issue is a state law that gives control of the overwhelming majority of the 33,000 federal [housing] choice vouchers used in Connecticut to local housing authorities, who limit where and how housing vouchers can be used,” the reporting said.
Blumenthal detailed some of these complaints from constituents in his letter.
“I have heard from my constituents how this issue is negatively affecting the residents of Connecticut. The Fair Housing Act mandates the completion of housing discrimination investigations within 100 days unless it is impracticable to do so, yet an investigation recently found that more than half of the open federal housing discrimination investigations in Connecticut exceed that threshold, sometimes by years,” Blumenthal said.
“The same problem is occurring nationally as well, as the number of aged investigations has steadily increased from 4,494 in 2010 to 6,145 in 2022. Despite the increase in cases, the number of investigators tasked with resolving housing discrimination claims has decreased from 622 in 2010 to 598 in 2024.”
Blumenthal specifically asked how the higher appropriations requested by the department for the next fiscal year would or could be applied to this issue, explanations for the delay and exceeding the 100-day investigation deadline and what additional steps Congress can take to substantively address this issue.
HousingWire reached out to representatives of both HUD and Blumenthal’s office, but did not immediately receive a response.
