Today, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center was awarded three grants through the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to continue fighting housing discrimination throughout Louisiana. The competitive grants are funded through HUD’s Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) and total over a million dollars over the course of three years.

The Center received the grants to support a variety of activities including investigation and enforcement of the Fair Housing Act, combatting lending discrimination, and a variety of education and outreach initiatives designed to inform community stakeholders about their fair housing rights and obligations. The Center was awarded the following grants:

• Private Enforcement Initiative, Multi-year (PEI) – The Center was awarded $325,000/year for three years (pending appropriations) to conduct fair housing investigations and testing and carry out enforcement activities to prevent or eliminate discriminatory housing practices.
• Education and Outreach Initiative General (EOI) – The Center was awarded $125,000 over the course of a year to educate the public and housing providers about their rights and responsibilities under federal, state, and local fair housing laws.
• Fair Housing Organizations Initiative Lending Component (FHOI) – The Center was awarded $325,000 over the course of a year to investigate lenders, brokers, or servicers and provide services to individuals who have faced discrimination in lending, assist in foreclosure prevention counseling, and develop a set of policy recommendations for local officials to address homeownership retention, gentrification, and lending discrimination.

The competitive grants were awarded to over 100 fair housing organizations and non-profit agencies in 43 states and the District of Columbia to address housing discrimination.

“These grants have been crucial in the Center’s fight against housing discrimination and segregation over the last 20 years, and have been necessary in creating equal, fair, and thriving neighborhoods for all Louisianans” said the Center’s Executive Director, James Perry.

###

Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) is a private nonprofit organization. GNOFHAC is dedicated to eliminating housing discrimination and furthering equal housing opportunities through education, outreach, advocacy, and enforcement of fair housing laws across the metro New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas. The activities described in this release were privately funded.

Comments are closed.