Fair Housing Initiatives Program Education and Outreach Initiative

Description

The Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) provides funding to eligible non-profits and other fair housing organizations through competitive grants under several initiatives to carry out education and outreach and enforcement activities to prevent or eliminate discriminatory housing practices and to inform individuals of their rights and responsibilities under the Fair Housing Act (FHA). The Initiatives are the Fair Housing Organizations Initiative (FHOI), the Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI) and the Education and Outreach Initiative (EOI). In addition, consistent with HUD appropriations directives, FHIP is publishing a separate NOFO under the EOI for Test Coordinator Training.This EOI NOFO makes available approximately $8,350,000 to develop, implement, carry out, and coordinate education and outreach programs designed to inform members of the public concerning their rights and obligations under the provisions of the FHA. Under this EOI NOFO, activities are divided into five components:EOI National – National Media Campaign ComponentThe national fair housing media campaign will focus on advancing racial equity and access to housing opportunities, especially in underserved communities. The campaign will include addressing barriers that may arise when people exercise their fair housing rights to expand housing choice. The campaign will also focus on educating the public about the forms of inequities based on race and national origin that can occur in real estate related transactions, including in the residential lending and appraisal markets. The campaign must provide for meaningful language access for persons of Limited English Proficiency and alternative forms of communication for individuals with disabilities. The campaign will provide information on how to file a housing discrimination complaint through HUD.EOI - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity ComponentThis NOFO includes funding for fair housing organizations to create and/or update and disseminate fair housing materials to reflect the clarification that after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bostock decision (Bostock v. Clayton County, 140 S. Ct. 1731 (2020)), the FHA bars discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.EOI - Advancing Racial Equity ComponentThis component will fund local and community-based education and outreach projects to promote racial desegregation, equity and justice in housing, and to address barriers that may arise when people protected under the FHA exercise their fair housing rights to expand their housing choice, consistent with the purpose of the FHA. These barriers include but are not limited to opposition to the creation and/or location of affordable housing, neighbor harassment based on race, and obstruction of persons who are seeking to enforce their fair housing rights. EOI - Targeted Fair Housing ComponentThis component targets organizations that demonstrate a need in their geographic area to work directly with populations of persons with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) to ensure they are aware of and understand their rights under the FHA. Funding may also be used for targeted education and outreach activities including fair housing services to underserved communities and underserved populations.EOI - General ComponentThis component provides funding for general fair housing education and outreach activities to inform people of their rights and responsibilities under the FHA. The Department encourages proposals which target antisemitic and Islamophobic discrimination, among other forms of housing discrimination.

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