HUD AWARDS MORE THAN $3.1 MILLION TO ILLINOIS TO FIGHT HOUSING DISCRIMINATION

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded 12 grants worth $3,102,928 to fair housing organizations in Illinois in an effort to reduce housing discrimination. This funding is part of $38.3 million HUD awarded today to 95 fair housing organizations and other non-profit agencies in 38 states.

Funded through HUD's Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP), these grants will help enforce the Fair Housing Act through investigation and testing of alleged discriminatory practices. In addition, the funds will educate housing providers, local governments and potential victims of housing discrimination about their rights and responsibilities under the Fair Housing Act.

"Ending housing discrimination requires that we support the law of the land and protect the housing rights of individuals and families who would be denied those rights," stated HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. "Ensuring and promoting Fair Housing practices lies at the core of HUD's mission and these grants enable community groups all over the nation to help families who are denied equal access to housing."

"No one should be denied the opportunity to live where they want because of how they look, their faith, whether they have children or because they have a disability. These grants will help us continue our efforts to educate the public and housing industry about their housing rights and responsibilities," said Antonio R. Riley, HUD's Midwest Regional Administrator.

See below for list of organizations, amount of grant and how the funds will be used.

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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. You can also follow HUD on Twitter at @HUDnews or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HUD, or sign up for news alerts on HUD's News Listserv.

Chicago

Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago
FY13 Private Enforcement Initiative -
Multi-Year Component - $325,000

Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago (Access Living) will use its grant to advance the housing rights of people with disabilities within its service area. Investigation and enforcement services will include work on behalf of individuals with disabilities to combat discrimination, expand fair housing opportunities and choice, assist individuals' transition from institutions into community-based housing, improve rental housing, promote accessible housing, and foster compliance with fair housing laws. Access Living will recommend policy changes to expand housing opportunities and advance fair housing protections for people with disabilities, ensure interagency coordination to further fair housing, and educate and collaborate with public and private partners on developing affordable, accessible, and integrated housing. The organization's education assistance activities will include empowering consumers to solve fair housing disputes on their own, instructing housing providers on how to comply with fair housing laws, and teaching architects and developers about new construction requirements.

Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc.
FY13 Private Enforcement Initiative -
Multi-Year Component - $325,000

The Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights (CLC) will use its grant to conduct intake, investigation including testing and systemic investigation, mediation and litigation, and outreach, education, and training. Specifically, CLC will receive discrimination complaints and refer cases to a panel of 35 pro bono lawyers from Chicago law firms. CLC will also recruit testers and conduct complaint-based and systemic testing for housing rental, sales, or lending. Lastly, CLC will reach people through its education and outreach efforts with fair housing brochures and presentations in English, Spanish, and other languages. In addition CLC will hold events in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Human Rights, a Fair Housing Assistance Program grantee.

John Marshall Law School
FY12 Private Enforcement Initiative -
Multi-Year Component - $279,951

The John Marshall Law School will use its grant to continue to fund the Fair Housing Legal Clinic, a broad-based, full-service project assisting persons who have been discriminated against in housing with legal representation. The Clinic will educate approximately 116 law students and 3 attorney fellows; conduct matched tests to determine if discrimination has occurred and conduct investigations and analyze all documentation to uncover patterns of discrimination that would present the need for systemic investigation; conduct education and outreach activities to educate the community about the fair housing laws and to inform persons of their rights under the law; and develop new partnerships.

John Marshall Law School
Fair Housing Organization Initiative -
Lending Discrimination - $324,966

The John Marshall Law School (JMLS) will use its grant to build its capacity to provide enforcement that addresses mortgage lending discrimination and provide education in the community about enforcing federal prohibitions on lending discrimination. To that end, JMLS will investigate allegations of lending discrimination; analyze evidence to uncover patterns of discrimination and possible systemic violations; identify, interview, and assist borrowers who have been injured by discriminatory lending practices that relate to mortgages, refinancing or loan modifications, or mortgage rescue scams and when necessary file systemic complaints to remedy the violations and prevent illegal practices in the future.

John Marshall Law School
Education and Outreach Initiative -
Higher Education Component - $99,865

The John Marshall Law School (JMLS) will use its grant to continue its Fair Housing Undergraduate Internship program. Specifically, the school's Fair Housing Legal Support Center (Center) will recruit, select, register, educate, and supervise internship placements for 12 students interested in fair housing law and enforcement. JMLS will also translate fair housing information for LEP populations. The school will distribute materials to the public at student-led presentations and two fair housing seminars, and to partners of higher education institutions and as well as local fair housing enforcement agencies and organizations. In addition, the Center will continue to strengthen its academic partnerships and establish a new partnership with a faith-based higher education institution, and strengthen its nonprofit local fair housing organization partnerships to develop viable internship placements.

Homewood

South Suburban Housing Center
FY11 Private Enforcement Initiative -
Multi-Year Component - $324,775

South Suburban Housing Center (SSHC) will use its grant to continue on-going comprehensive fair housing and fair lending enforcement, counseling, and advocacy assistance for victims discriminatory practices, bolster education and outreach to heighten awareness by vulnerable protected groups. SSHC will help build the capacity of local governments through training and cooperative efforts to implement regional activities to affirmatively further fair housing.

South Suburban Housing Center
Fair Housing Organization Initiative -
Lending Discrimination - $224,400

South Suburban Housing Center (SSHC) will use this grant to address lending discrimination in the south Chicago metropolitan region. To this end, SSHC will implement fair housing enforcement, counseling, and advocacy assistance for victims of mortgage discrimination and conduct education and outreach awareness to prevent predatory lending, mortgage fraud, and mortgage modification scams. SSHC will also create partnerships with local organizations, governments, and FHAPs to build capacity to overcome mortgage lending problems through regional efforts to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing. SSHC will assist mortgage distressed families affected by discriminatory lending market practices with their current loan workout, refinance, and other loan modification options to achieve successful resolutions. Finally the Center will produce an instructional video and provide of education and counseling awareness activities to prevent the spread of fraudulent mortgage and rescue scam activities.

Rockford

Prairie State Legal Services, Inc.
Fair Housing Organization Initiative -
Continued Development General Component - $325,000

Prairie State Legal Services, Inc. (PSLS) will use its grant to develop its enforcement and education and outreach capacity. PSLS will process and file or refer complaints, assist with reasonable accommodations, negotiate, monitor, and enforce agreements and provide legal representation. PSLS will recruit and train testers and conduct tests, including lending discrimination tests and investigate systemic discrimination against Hispanics in sales or lending and refer results HUD or the Illinois Department of Human Rights. PSLS will counsel individuals with limited English proficiency on fair housing rights, and deliver any required training. Community outreach will include a regional fair housing planning process and a referral protocol and work agreements with community agencies and fair housing based groups. PSLS will give fair housing and affirmatively furthering fair housing presentations, hold a housing resource fair, distribute materials, and place ads on public transportation and social network sites.

West Chicago

HOPE Fair Housing Center
FY11 Private Enforcement Initiative -
Multi-Year Component - $324,020

HOPE Fair Housing Center (HOPE) will use its grant to conduct rental, accessibility, and lending investigations, and request and review Public Housing Authority affirmatively furthering fair housing plans. HOPE will expand its systemic investigations, including those for accessible housing, discrimination in availability or terms and conditions against disabled persons in rental housing, and investigations into bank owned, foreclosed homes. HOPE will begin conducting systemic investigations of real estate sales practices in Northern Illinois.

HOPE Fair Housing Center
Education and Outreach Initiative -
Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Training Component - $124,991

HOPE Fair Housing Center (HOPE) will use its grant to provide two web-based training sessions marketed to the Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) located in the HUD's Region V. The first training will include: the fundamental requirements of the Fair Housing Act, Section 504, and other key civil rights laws; HUD guidance and the requirement to affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH); and key points of data PHAs need to analyze for fair housing and AFFH compliance. The second training will include: a checklist of essential fair housing, civil rights, and HUD related policies; resources and information about PHA best practices, including Moving to Work, Mobility Counseling, and innovative programs such as the Inclusive Communities Project "Mobility Works" program and outcomes; and resources for overcoming NIMBY-ism. Between the two trainings, HOPE will provide individual technical assistance sessions with HOPE mapping and data analysis staff to develop assessments for the PHAs in HOPE's northern Illinois service area.

HOPE Fair Housing Center
Fair Housing Organization Initiative -
Lending Discrimination - $324,962

HOPE Fair Housing Center (HOPE) will use its grant to expand its systemic investigations into Real Estate Owned (REO) homes in select comparable neighborhoods and continue to conduct lending investigations, focusing on Chicago, which has continued high foreclosure rates, and in the more remote and rural locations HOPE serves. In addition, HOPE will conduct systemic investigations of mortgage lending practices in Northern Illinois, including the lending terms and conditions or availability for persons with disabilities. Lastly, HOPE will use its grant to continue its education and outreach for persons in protected classes, neighborhood groups, housing providers, and the public.

HOPE Fair Housing Center
Education and Outreach Initiative -
Higher Education Component - $99,998

HOPE Fair Housing Center (HOPE) will use its grant to target college, university and ESL (including adult classes) students by conducting presentations within HOPE's 30-county service area to students and new immigrants learning English by providing useful fair housing information and resources. HOPE will continue to partner with the John Marshall Law School (JMLS) Fair Housing Clinic in recruiting interns for its Fair Housing Undergraduate Internship program. This collaboration between HOPE and JMLS maximizes and leverages HUD funds by creating a synergy in educating, recruiting, mentoring, and inspiring the next generation. HOPE will also review and analyze the before and after fair housing surveys and create a report documenting program outcomes.