BUSH ADMINISTRATION AWARDS $17.6 MILLION IN FAIR HOUSING GRANTS TO CONTINUE FIGHT AGAINST HOUSING BIAS
Groups in Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, Painesville and Toledo Receive $1,318,804

CHICAGO - The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced today it has awarded $17.6 million in grants to fair housing groups in 39 states and the District of Columbia as part of the Bush Administration's efforts to curb housing discrimination. In Ohio, funds are awarded to Fair Housing Contact Service (Akron), Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Cincinnati. Housing Research & Advocacy Center and The Housing Advocates, Inc. (Cleveland), Miami Valley Fair Housing Center, Inc. (Dayton), Fair Housing Resource Center (Painesville) and Fair Housing Center (Toledo).

"Today's announcement is another step toward ensuring that Americans have equal access to safe and affordable housing," said HUD Acting Secretary Alphonso Jackson. "We will not allow discrimination to stop families across this nation from living in any home, apartment or neighborhood they can afford."

The grants were awarded today by HUD's Fair Housing Initiatives Program to groups that will use the funds to investigate allegations of housing discrimination, educate the public and housing industry about housing discrimination laws, and work to promote fair housing.

"Until every door that today stands closed has been opened, until all families live in the homes of their dreams, in the neighborhoods of their choice, we must work to ensure that all housing is fair housing," said Joseph P. Galvan, HUD Regional Director for the Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin).

Ohio recipients include:

Akron - Fair Housing Contact Service - $206,489.79 (PEI)
The Fair Housing Contact Service (FHCS), in partnership with the Tri-County Independent Living Center and Housing Advocates, Inc., will undertake this 18-month initiative that plans systematic tests to identify sources of housing discrimination, accompanied by enforcement of laws that afford relief to protected classes of individuals. Particular attention will be given to persons with physical and mental disabilities. Serving Medina County, FHCS' testing base
will target congregate living arrangements in the private and public sectors. The testing will ultimately aid in identifying impediments to providing requisite housing for disabled populations, while instituting legal intervention, mediation, information dissemination, and other appropriate measures to alleviate and/or remove them.

Cincinnati - Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Cincinnati  - $206,357.04 (PEI)
Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Cincinnati (HOME) will leverage this grant to continue addressing the fair
housing issues facing recent immigrants to the Greater Cincinnati area. As the target population of this grant, the Latino/Hispanic population will benefit from education and outreach programs delivered in Spanish. Expanding on its current work, which consists of random audits of apartments and complaint referrals, HOME will use this 18-month grant to support more enforcement, testing, and education. Immigrants will benefit from homeownership and
predatory lending sessions and a Section 8 workshop. This undertaking will reinforce current collaborative efforts
with local government and community agencies.

Cleveland - Housing Research & Advocacy Center - $206,489.79 (PEI)
The Housing Research & Advocacy Center proposes to provide a full service and broad based fair housing
enforcement project. The Housing Research & Advocacy Center has experience in testing, research and investigation, education, and outreach efforts and enforcement. The Housing Research & Advocacy Center will provide fair housing services in the Cleveland, Ohio Metropolitan Area and while the Housing Research & Advocacy Center and its subcontractors will provide a full service fair housing program to all protected class members, the need is greatest for blacks and the disabled. Thus the project will focus on tasks designed to reduce discrimination against blacks and persons with disabilities in all housing services including rental, sales, insurance, and lending in the targeted area.

Cleveland - The Housing Advocates, Inc. - $80,000 (EOI-G)
The Housing Advocates, Inc., will develop and disseminate PowerPoint presentations (modified to reach different audiences), public service announcements, brochures, and other educational materials on the dangers of predatory lending. These educational materials would be made available in both Spanish and English and made available at educational seminars to be held throughout Cuyahoga and Lorain Counties (Ohio). The seminars would be targeted
to clergy and lay staff, law enforcement personnel, consumer and bankruptcy attorneys, and homeowners and homebuyers. These newly educated religious leaders will sponsor community education events on predatory lending and invite their congregation to these church-sponsored programs.

Dayton - Miami Valley Fair Housing Center, Inc. - $206,488.29 (PEI)
The Miami Valley Fair Housing Center (MVFHC) will oversee a 12-month initiative that augments its existing enforcement activities, particularly those that address racial steering as a form of housing discrimination. MVFHS will continue its Predatory Lending Solutions project, which focuses on the disproportionate impact of this type of
lending on African Americans and minority neighborhoods in Montgomery County. Through educational and outreach programs, the project will teach people to recognize and report housing discrimination in all of its various forms, including rental, sales, lending, insurance, and racial or sexual harassment.

Painesville - Fair Housing Resource Center - $206,489.79 (PEI)
The Fair Housing Resource Center (FHRC) enforcement efforts within Lake County will involve testing the rental
market for discrimination against African Americans, Latinos, families with children, and persons with disabilities.
During the 18-month period, the FHRC will increase the number of meritorious claims submitted to HUD and complete first-time testing of the sale and lending markets. This project will expand existing community partnerships with local government, community organizations, and housing professionals.

Toledo - Fair Housing Center - $206,489.79 (PEI)
Since 1975, the Fair Housing Center (FHC) has delivered comprehensive enforcement, education and outreach, housing counseling, technical assistance, research, and community reinvestment programs. Residents of Toledo and other northwest Ohio denizens will benefit from FHC's continued work under this 18-month grant. Collaborative
efforts with the League of Women Voters, the Old West End Neighborhood Association, and several individuals and
community groups augment service delivery to African Americans, Asian Americans, Caucasians, and Latinos. Project activities will include: (1) presentations at all levels of governments; (2) complaint administration and HUD referrals; and (3) management of national media campaigns and training sessions for real estate professionals, testers, and
staff in related fields.

Three types of grants were awarded to groups in 96 cities:

• Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI) grants - About $10.2 million was awarded to assist private,
  tax-exempt fair housing enforcement organizations in the investigation and enforcement of alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act and State and local fair housing laws.
  
  
• Education and Outreach Initiative (EOI) grants - About $5.3 million was allocated to groups to educate the public about the rights and obligations under federal, state and local fair housing laws. Nearly $800,000 went
  to ten groups that focus on the needs of persons with disabilities.|
  
  
• Fair Housing Organizations Initiative (FHOI) grants  - About $2.1 million was awarded for projects that serve rural and immigrant populations in underserved areas or where there currently is no existing fair housing organization.

In 2002, HUD released a study titled Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets: Phase I, which documented that despite a decline during the last decade, housing discrimination still exists at unacceptable levels. Last year, HUD, in partnership with The Advertising Council and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, recently released an award-winning, edgy multimedia campaign designed to fight housing discrimination by showing the many faces of those persons protected by the nation's 35-year-old Fair Housing Act.

HUD received applications from 215 groups seeking grants for the fiscal year 2003 assistance. Grants were awarded
to 121 projects in the following locations:

Since the program's inception in 1989, nearly $226 million has been awarded to some 1070 organizations. Twenty eight organizations selected for this year's awards are first-time applicants.

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HUD is the nation's housing agency committed to increasing homeownership, particularly among minorities; creating affordable housing opportunities for low-income Americans; and supporting the homeless, elderly, people with disabilities and people living with AIDS. The Department also promotes economic and community development as well as enforces the nation's fair housing laws. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet and espanol.hud.gov.