HUD AWARDS MORE THAN $1 MILLION IN GRANTS TO COMBAT HOUSING DISCRIMINATION IN MASSACHUSETTS

BOSTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today awarded more than $1 million to five fair housing organizations to assist people in Massachusetts who believe they have been victims of housing discrimination. (See list of Massachusetts grantees below).

Massachusetts Grantees

Boston
Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston
Private Enforcement Initiative - Multi-Year
Component - $325,000.00

Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston (FHCGB) will use its grant to serve the populations of the Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Plymouth counties, and the project will serve members of all protected classes under the Fair Housing Act and substantially equivalent state law, including the following targeted underserved populations: people of color, people with disabilities, homeless individuals and families, immigrants with limited English proficiency, and low- and moderate-income home seekers. FHCGB will provide sixty education and training sessions to housing seekers and housing providers in twelve different languages and provide nine Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing trainings to non-profit organizations, cities, towns and/or municipalities.

Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston
Education and Outreach Initiative - General
Component - $124,999.72

Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston will use its grant to educate the general public, municipalities, landlords, property managers, real estate brokers, community development corporations, and advocacy organizations via fair housing trainings with a particular emphasis on discrimination affecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to determine whether there is evidence of sex discrimination, discrimination based on source of income which may indicate unlawful discrimination based on race, national origin, or other protected class, fair lending, and Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice. The organization will also conduct a fair housing conference.

Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston
Education and Outreach Initiative - Higher Education
Component - $99,999.00

Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston will use its grant to work with faculty to develop two academic modules that will integrate a fair housing curriculum within a public policy course offered at Tufts University (Tufts/UEP) and an urban design seminar offered through the Gateways Program at the Boston Architectural College. Other activities will include recruiting four interns to participate in a 14-week, paid internship during the fall and spring semesters. Tufts/UEP interns will research discriminatory lending patterns in Somerville and Medford with a particular emphasis on predatory lending, rescue mortgage scams and foreclosures, and Boston Architectural College interns will create a disability access tool-kit for developers, architects and contractors. FHCGB staff will participate in seminars, colloquia and campus events at both schools.

Holyoke
Housing Discrimination Project
Private Enforcement Initiative - Performance Based
Component - $325,000.00

The Housing Discrimination Project (HDP) will use its grant to affirmatively further fair housing by conducting systemic linguistic profiling testing; conducting an analysis of zoning ordinances to identify policies or practices that contribute to residential segregation; developing a training module and conducting education and outreach in medical clinics, where health concerns intersect with fair housing solutions; and partnering with two local housing authorities to help eliminate the discriminatory barriers Section 8 voucher holders face when attempting to move from a high-poverty community into a low-poverty community. HDP will also conduct education and outreach activities to build the capacity of the private bar to litigate complaints of housing discrimination and to educate the housing industry about their obligations under the Federal Fair Housing laws. HDP's project will focus media, enforcement and community education campaigns toward traditionally underserved populations, including LEP communities.

Worcester
Community Legal Aid, Inc.
Private Enforcement Initiative - Lending
Component - $183,500.00

Community Legal Aid, Inc. (CLA) will use its grant for investigation and enforcement activities that will include: analysis of where protected classes live in relationship to concentrated foreclosure activity; work with partners on education for at-risk homeowners on fair lending, discriminatory lending, foreclosure prevention, mortgage rescue schemes, and fair housing law rights; create, translate, and distribute brochures, and engage in outreach, including newspaper articles and advertisements and appearances on local cable television; help homeowners seeking loan modifications and help with mortgage rescue scam issues; file complaints, assist persons with disabilities, and help homeowners threatened with, or going through foreclosure from unfair lending practices and other violations of state and federal law; participate in a working group and two taskforces where information will be disseminated about foreclosure prevention.

"We are pleased to provide the only federal grant support to private fair housing enforcement and education," said HUD's New England Regional Administrator Barbara Fields. "Our local partners are essential to ending housing discrimination."

The competitive grants are funded through HUD's Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP), and are part of nearly $41.18 million distributed nationwide to 99 fair housing organizations and other non-profit agencies in 35 states and the District of Columbia. The grants will be used to enforce the Fair Housing Act through investigation and testing of alleged discriminatory practices, and to educate housing providers, local governments and potential victims of housing discrimination about their rights and responsibilities under the Fair Housing Act. HUD had over $70 million in requests for FHIP, but funded only $41 million.

HUD is awarding FHIP grants to the following agencies in Massachusetts.

FHEO and its partners in the Fair Housing Assistance Program investigate more than 9,300 housing discrimination complaints annually. People who believe they are the victims of housing discrimination should contact HUD at (800) 669-9777 (voice) or (800) 927-9275 (TTY).

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