The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has awarded $38.3 million to more than 100 fair housing organizations and other non-profit agencies in 43 states and the District of Columbia to address housing discrimination. The competitive grants are funded through HUD’s Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) to help enforce the Fair Housing Act through investigations and testing of alleged discriminatory practices, and to help educate housing providers, local governments and potential victims of housing discrimination about their rights and responsibilities under the Fair Housing Act.
“Ending housing discrimination is at the core of HUD’s mission and it takes dedicated people on the ground to address it,” said HUD Secretary Julián Castro. “These funds support community-based organizations that do great work every day on the front lines in the fight for fairness and equality in our nation’s housing market.”
HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Gustavo Velasquez said, “The Fair Housing Initiatives Program provides the only federal grant support to private fair housing enforcement and education. Dispersed throughout the country, these grants enable our partner agencies to stand beside us in the fight against housing discrimination, and we couldn’t do it without them.”
With HUD approaching its 50th anniversary next year, Secretary Castro is focused on advancing policies that level the playing fields for all Americans by combating housing discrimination.
The categories of grants awarded today are:
►Private Enforcement Initiative grants (PEI): HUD awarded $29.2 million to help local non-profit fair housing organizations carry out testing and enforcement activities to prevent or eliminate discriminatory housing practices.
►Education and Outreach Initiative grants (EOI): HUD awarded $5.5 million to groups that educate the public and housing providers about their rights and responsibilities under federal, state, and local fair housing laws.
►Fair Housing Organizations Initiative (FHOI): HUD awarded $3.6 million to help build the capacity and effectiveness of non-profit fair housing organizations, particularly organizations that focus on the rights and needs of underserved groups, such as rural and immigrant populations, and support broader geographic availability of fair housing resources.
