Marcia Fudge, ‘The Fixer,’ is fixing things

When a lot of folks think of the civil rights movement, they think about segregated lunch counters and water fountains. They think about school integration and voter suppression. They think of burning crosses, fire hoses and dogs attacking marchers.

They think of an Atlanta preacher charting out his dream in front of the Lincoln Memorial, or rifle fire cracking through the Memphis morning of April 4, 1968. I think about it too — especially on Martin Luther King Day.

But for some reason, most folks don’t think about housing, and for the life of me, I can’t understand why.

Most folks forget that, in addition to his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” King wrote a list of demands to end housing segregation and, much like his namesake had done nearly 450 years earlier, posted them on a door — the door to Chicago’s City Hall, on July 10, 1966.

“We are here today because we are tired,” King said, rallying a crowd of 35,000 people at Soldier Field that day. “We are tired of paying more for less. We are tired of living in rat-infested slums.”

Nearly 60 years later, fair and affordable housing is still one of the biggest civil rights issues facing America. It’s also commonly overlooked. That’s not only a shame; it’s downright dangerous. After all, as Congressman Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) would say, housing is an “artery issue” in this country. That means we must make it accessible and affordable to all because, when the artery clogs, the heart stops.

Luckily, there is someone who remembers the lessons of the Chicago Freedom Movement. President Biden named her as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. I wrote about Secretary Marcia Fudge in 2021 when she was sworn in. I called her “The Fixer.”

Since then, The Fixer has been hard at work — fixing things.

In December 2020, Moody’s Analytics reported that nearly 12 million U.S. renters were expected to owe an average of roughly $6,000 in late rent and utility payments and nearly 3 million homeowners were more than 90 days behind on their mortgages in January. By February, roughly one of five renters were behind on rent and over 10 million homeowners were behind on mortgage payments, putting them at risk of eviction and foreclosure.

President Biden reacted to the situation by extending the foreclosure moratorium and expanding forbearance programs, but that stopgap did little to address the fact that our nation has a 7.2 million-unit affordable housing shortage, more than 500,000 Americans are homeless on any given night, and there is nowhere in America where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford a two-bedroom apartment.

So, Secretary Fudge got to work — and, as they say, the proof is in the pudding.

This year alone, she and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) helped more than 1 million Americans keep their homes through the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) home retention options; provided more than 100,000 housing vouchers to low-income renters; doubled funding for their Eviction Protection Grant Program; and invested $1 billion for housing in tribal communities through the Indian Housing Block Grant program.

Fudge expanded access to housing counseling, invested $113 million to expand the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program, and launched PAVE, an interagency task force committed to rooting out racial and ethnic bias in home valuations.

In addition to approving new HOME grants and removing the FHA insurance backlog, she has led the way on preserving the country’s existing affordable housing through a continuing $15 billion investment in construction, more than $430 million in Mixed Finance development deals, and $183 million in Choice Neighborhood grants.

What’s more, she and HUD are leveraging over $1.13 billion in funding for community investments such as grocery stores, business façade improvements, homeowner rehab projects, and placemaking amenities.

I see Dr. King in Secretary Fudge, someone who is transforming HUD back into what it was meant to be — a force for good, a force for equality.

In 1968, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act as a result of the Chicago Freedom Movement and King’s assassination. Today, Marcia Fudge is helping to make that promise a reality for countless American families.

The Fixer is fixing. I can’t think of a better testament to Dr. King.

Antjuan Seawright is a Democratic political strategist, founder and CEO of Blueprint Strategy LLC, a CBS News political contributor, and a senior visiting fellow at Third Way. Follow him on Twitter @bjohansentjuansea.