On February 27th, Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Greater Cincinnati (HOME) was notified that one of its major fair housing grants was terminated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), effective immediately.
The Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI) grant is a multi-year grant supporting fair housing counseling, investigation, education and enforcement. HOME is currently in Year 2 of the 3-year grant. The annual grant award is $425,000. This represents approximately 30% of HOME’s annual funding. Across the country, other fair housing groups also received grant termination notices.
The sudden and immediate termination of the PEI grant will limit HOME’s ability to investigate, request Reasonable Accommodations or Modifications, mediate cases with housing providers and clients, and assist clients with filing fair housing complaints. Specifically, HOME is forced to:
Reduce fair housing counseling impacting roughly 350 clients per year. In the last two years of the grant to date, HOME counseled 612 clients and resolved 160 cases with benefits to clients.
Last year, HOME assisted a client with avoiding eviction and negotiated a change to their rent payment date to when they receive Social Security Disability Income. The client was forced to pay late fees and was facing an eviction. HOME requested a reasonable accommodation to the property manager and reached a resolution where the client’s eviction was dismissed, they were reimbursed the late fees, and successfully moved the rent payment date to when they receive SSDI payments so they could remain in their home.
Reduce investigations of illegal housing discrimination in the rental, sales, and lending markets. This includes investigations to ensure accessibility standards are met in housing, as well investigations into mortgage lenders following our recent report findings that people of color still face discrimination and unfair lending practices when applying for a mortgage loan.
Reduce the number of trainings provided to both consumers and housing providers on fair housing rights and responsibilities.
“Fair housing and civil rights laws are unequivocal. Those laws haven’t changed in the last month,” says Elisabeth Risch, Executive Director. “HOME and other fair housing organizations are the critical frontline defenders, providing counseling and ensuring every individual can access housing free from discrimination. Our investigations show that significant discrimination is still happening in Cincinnati based on race, disability status, family status, and other protected classes. The sudden and immediate termination of this grant is a failure of the federal government to enforce fair housing laws and ensure all people have access to housing.”
###