HUD AWARDS OVER $40 MILLION IN GRANTS TO FIGHT HOUSING AND LENDING DISCRIMINATION
Five District of Columbia Organizations Receive More Than $5.7 Million

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today awarded $40.8 million to 108 fair housing organizations and non-profit agencies in 36 states and the District of Columbia to educate the public and combat housing and lending discrimination (see attached list of grantees). The Equal Rights Center, Housing Counseling Services, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, National Community Reinvestment Coalition and the National Fair Housing Alliance received more than $5.7 million of the national total. This year's national award represents a $13.2 million increase over last year's award and includes $10 million to fund activities that address lending discrimination, including mortgage rescue scams.

"The record increase in support to local fair housing and community organizations demonstrates the Obama Administration's firm commitment to ending housing discrimination and providing help to families victimized by
mortgage scams," stated HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.

"Ending housing discrimination takes more than the efforts of Washington," said John Trasviña, HUD's Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity. "These grants enable community groups all over the nation to help HUD enforce the Fair Housing Act, make the public more aware of their fair housing rights and ensure that housing providers understand their responsibilities under the law."

The grants announced today are funded through HUD's Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) and will be used to investigate allegations of housing discrimination, educate the public and the housing industry about their rights and responsibilities under the Fair Housing Act, and work to promote equal housing opportunities.

"It is HUD's mission to build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination," said HUD Regional Administrator Jane C. W. Vincent. "This grant money will increase support to local community education and enforcement efforts to prevent housing discrimination in the District of Columbia and across the country."

The categories grants were awarded in include:

• Private Enforcement Initiative grants (PEI) - HUD awarded $28 million to support organization that investigate alleged housing discrimination, and enforce the Fair Housing Act and state and local laws that are substantially equivalent to the Act. Groups will also use the funding to conduct testing to protect individuals living in minority neighborhoods from mortgage rescue scams.
   
• Education and Outreach Initiative grants (EOI) - HUD awarded $6.8 million to organizations that educate the public and housing providers about their rights and obligations under federal, state, and local fair housing laws. Groups will also conduct fair lending workshops, community meetings, and individual counseling activities focused on homeowners at risk for discrimination.
   
• Fair Housing Organizations Initiative grants (FHOI) - HUD awarded $6 million to organizations serving rural and immigrant populations in areas lacking existing fair housing organizations, or otherwise underserved. Included will be activities that provide direct assistance to victims of fraudulent or predatory mortgage rescue schemes.

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HUD's mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and espanol.hud.gov.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA GRANT SUMMARIES

Washington

Equal Rights Center
Private Enforcement Initiative - Performance Based
Funding Component - $325,000
The Equal Rights Center will use its grant to benefit individuals protected by all federally protected classes, locally protected classes in the District of Columbia and locally protected classes of surrounding areas, with a particular emphasis on disability and national origin. The ERC will: maintain a comprehensive enforcement log to accept complaints based on federally and locally protected classes; conduct intakes and investigate, through testing and other methods, 240 new complaints of housing discrimination alleging violation of federal fair housing laws; refer 30 meritorious complaints to HUD or the District of Columbia Office of Human Rights or assist complainants through the HUD/FHAP administrative process; and develop educational and counseling opportunities in the community through
an integrated outreach approach.

Housing Counseling Services, Inc.
Education and Outreach Initiative - Lending
Component - $125,000

Housing Counseling Services, Inc. (HCS) will use its grant to provide public educational events to educate
homebuyers and homeowners on lending practices that violate the Fair Housing Act. The activities will: target low- and moderate-income and underserved homebuyers and homeowners; encourage housing industry professionals, housing providers, community-based service providers and community based leaders to play a more active role in promoting equal housing opportunity; curtail housing discrimination and increase the number of complaints filed with fair housing enforcement agencies throughout the area. Specialized workshops for homebuyers and homeowners combining education on fair housing matters with counseling on home retention and individual counseling for homeowners specialized to address fair housing in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, or Korean. The program will also focus on building a sustainable network of fair housing-savvy community based service providers and leaders in the
DC area.

National Community Reinvestment Coalition
Private Enforcement Initiative - General
Component - $315,256

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition will use its grant to conduct a project that will encompass fair
housing and fair lending investigation of issues affecting seniors, including the HECM reverse mortgage product. This project will be conducted in the United States' major metropolitan areas, including Washington, DC, Miami, FL, St. Louis, MO, San Diego, CA, Boston, MA and Philadelphia, PA. Work will be conducted from local partners' onsite offices as well as at NCRC's offices in Washington.

Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Private Enforcement Initiative - Mortgage Rescue Scam
Component - $499,992
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law will use its grant to implement FHIP Mortgage Rescue Scams Training and Enforcement. Specifically, the Committee will maintain up-to-date information for consumers and professionals concerning how to protect against mortgage rescue scams and file complaints, state-specific housing counseling resources and lists of alleged scammers; conduct training, outreach or technical assistance events reaching 5,000 homeowners, housing counselors, and other housing professionals; conduct quarterly analysis of alleged scammers with three or more complaints against them in the Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network database; and interview homeowners to develop cases against alleged scammers. Training and technical assistance activities will be conducted nationally, and enforcement activities will be concentrated in Southern and Northern California, Florida, Metropolitan Washington, DC, Texas and Metropolitan New York City.

National Community Reinvestment Coalition
Private Enforcement Initiative - Mortgage Rescue Scam
Component - $500,000
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) will use its grant to conduct systemic discrimination fair lending file reviews, matched-paired mortgage lending tests and increase capacity of participating organizations to address systemic discrimination in mortgage lending and loan servicing. Though the project is national in scope, it will include targeted outreach and support of agencies in Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) that are largely, historically segregated, hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis, and which have experienced disparate levels of subprime lending to their minority populations. Work will be coordinated from NCRC's offices in Washington.

National Fair Housing Alliance
Private Enforcement Initiative - Mortgage Rescue Scam
Component - $498,640

The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) will use its grant to conduct three related testing investigations designed
to provide a strategic, systemic approach to challenging illegal activities surrounding mortgage scams, lending discrimination and REO foreclosure discrimination in the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area. The project will serve people protected under the Fair Housing Act by investigating and examining differences in treatment and services between whites and African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, people with disabilities, families with children, people with Limited English Proficiency and single female headed households.

National Community Reinvestment Coalition
Private Enforcement Initiative - Mortgage Rescue Scam
Component - $486,601

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition will use its grant to encompass fair lending enforcement activities to identify and combat abusive foreclosure prevention scams and mortgage refinancing practices throughout major metropolitan areas in the United States, including Phoenix, AZ; Atlanta, GA; St. Louis, MO; Oakland, CA; San Diego CA; New Orleans, LA; Boston, MA; Philadelphia, PA/Camden, NJ; Miami/Fort Lauderdale, FL; and Washington, DC/Baltimore, MD. NCRC will review 500 case files and investigate 100 mortgage rescue scam claims to identify 50 targets. The project will conduct 75 matched-pair tests. Work will be conducted from NCRC's offices in Washington and local partners' onsite offices.

National Fair Housing Alliance
Education and Outreach Initiative - National Program/Media Campaign
Component - $1,000,000

The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) will use this grant to develop and distribute a public service advertising campaign to address housing discrimination in rental markets, promote housing choice and inclusive communities, and assist organizations and Community Development Block Grant entitlement jurisdictions in affirmatively furthering fair housing. Media products will be distributed to a broad audience of consumers and national and local civil rights, housing counseling, veterans' assistance, and fair housing organizations. The campaign will include television and
radio public service announcements (PSAs) in English and Spanish; print PSAs in English, Spanish, and Chinese; posters, billboards and public transmit placement, mall marketing; a children's book with curriculum and workshop materials; previous advertisements; and a digital library accessible to the public. Because the majority of
homeseekers now begin their housing search online, the campaign will utilize the internet and social media.

National Fair Housing Alliance
Education and Outreach Initiative - National Program/National Training
Component - $767,293
National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) will use its grant to educate employees of housing counseling agencies, fair housing organizations, consumer protection agencies, and local jurisdictions about fair housing and lending, loan scam and foreclosure prevention. NFHA will develop and provide, on-site, fair housing/fair lending training courses for fair housing organizations in jurisdictions hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis and full-day, on-site, fair lending training courses in communities hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis; a basic web-based fair housing/fair lending training program and web-based, topic specific, fair housing/fair lending training courses for housing counseling agencies, fair housing organizations and consumer advocacy and protection agencies nationwide. The project will disseminate fair housing and lending educational materials to housing counseling agencies, fair housing organizations, and consumer advocates across the country and provide technical assistance to all housing counseling agencies and fair housing organizations attending training.

National Community Reinvestment Coalition
Education and Outreach Initiative - National Program/National Training
Component - $232,707
National Community Reinvestment Coalition will use its grant to work with The Graduate School (The Graduate) to design fair lending trainings courses to increase the knowledge and capacity of housing counseling and fair housing professionals. These trainings will educate attendees on how to identify potential fair lending violations in the pre-purchase, loan transaction and post-mortgage stages of mortgage lending. Trainings will be held in the following 15 cities: Oakland, CA; Boston, MA; Philadelphia, PA; Orlando, FL; Milwaukee, WI; Memphis, TN; Atlanta, GA; Houston, TX; New Orleans, LA; Detroit, MI; Phoenix, AZ; Las Vegas, NV; Long Beach, CA; Baltimore, MD; and Washington, DC.

National Fair Housing Alliance
Fair Housing Organizations Initiative - Establishing New Organizations
Component - $994,211
National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) will use its grant to establish a full service non-profit Fair Housing Center in Central Indiana (FHCCI). FHCCI will provide services including: teaching people to recognize and report housing discrimination, including rental, sales, lending, insurance, and racial or sexual harassment; outreach focusing on educating Latino immigrants using bi-lingual NFHA and HUD outreach materials; collaboration with NFHA and disability rights groups to disburse grants to assist persons with disabilities, including disabled veterans, make modifications to increase housing accessibility, and investigative services to gain relief for victims of housing discrimination through testing, investigation and administrative and legal enforcement efforts. Collaborating with local partners, NFHA will recruit, organize and train the FHCCI Board of Directors and help the Board and executive director hire and train
other staff.

Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) Grants
Fiscal Year 2010