Through this rule, HUD provides HUD program participants with more effective means to affirmatively further the purposes and policies of the Fair Housing Act, which is title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. The former practice of affirmatively further fair housing carried out by HUD grantees, which involved an analysis of impediments to fair housing choice and a certification that the grantee was affirmatively furthering fair housing, has been found not as effective as envisioned. To better fulfill this statutory obligation, this rule replaces existing requirements with a fair housing assessment and planning process that is intended to aid HUD program participants in improving access to opportunity and advancing the ability for all families to make true housing choices. To facilitate this new approach, HUD will provide States, local governments, and public housing agencies, as well as the communities they serve, with local and regional data on, but not limited to, patterns of integration and segregation, and racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty. This rule further commits HUD to greater engagement and better guidance for program participants in fulfilling their obligation to affirmatively further fair housing.