House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA) sent a letter to HUD Secretary Ben Carson urging him to immediately release FY19 funds for the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP). The delay in funding could result in a funding gap of at least six months for the nearly one-third of private, nonprofit fair housing organizations that receive FHIP funding. The FY18 Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) was similarly delayed, suggesting a pattern that will undermine fair housing enforcement.
According to the National Fair Housing Alliance’s (NFHA’s) 2019 Fair Housing Trends Report (see Memo, 11/11), the number of housing discrimination complaints in 2018 was the highest of any year since NFHA started collecting data in 1995. As in previous years, nonprofit fair housing groups processed about 75% of those complaints. The FY19 NOFA to provide federal resources to these organizations was the only one HUD had not yet released. Chair Waters called the delay “a needless and unacceptable blow to fair housing enforcement in this country.” She requested Secretary Carson immediately release the NOFA and provide a specific explanation for the delay.
HUD finally posted the NOFA on December 19, the day after Chair Waters sent her letter.
Chair Waters’ letter is at: https://bit.ly/2Q2DRkx
The NOFA is posted at: https://bit.ly/2Q3acI4