Human Services News

From HUD Press Releases:

The Department of Housing and Urban Development today awarded 88 grants totaling $17.1 million to recipients in 37 states and the District of Columbia to help fight housing discrimination.

Additionally, HUD awarded $1 million to New America Media, a division of Pacific News Service, to develop the Department's first coordinated national media campaign to educate the public about discriminatory lending.

New America Media has engaged the creative team of Impact Strategies, LLC, and Equals Three Communications to produce television, radio, and print advertisements.

"Last year there were a record 10,328 housing discrimination complaints filed with HUD and its state and local partners," said Kim Kendrick, HUD's Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.

"These grants will allow us to continue with efforts to educate the public and the housing industry about their rights and responsibilities under the Fair Housing Act.

The grants, funded through HUD's Fair Housing Initiatives Program, will be used to investigate allegations of housing discrimination, educate the public and the housing industry about their rights and responsibilities under the Fair Housing Act, and work to promote equal housing opportunities.

For the first time in the history of the Fair Housing Initiatives Program, an organization in the state of West Virginia received a grant.

Thirty-Nine of HUD's more than 100 FHIP agencies are high performers and will receive multi-year funding.

Multi-year funding allows groups that maintain excellent performance ratings to continue their activities without interruption.

Part of the Department's national effort to reduce discrimination against persons with disabilities, Access Living will use the grant to conduct a range of fair housing enforcement activities.

Read more from this post.