Durbin Announces $2.4 Million In Hud Funding For Illinois Fair Housing Initiatives
CHICAGO – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced that Illinois organizations and non-profits will receive a total of $2,445,083 in grant funding through the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP), a federal grant program administered by Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to assist people who believe they have been victims of housing discrimination.
“Unfortunately in this day and age, families and individuals across Illinois continue to experience discrimination when it comes to finding housing,” Durbin said. “This important federal funding will give state and local housing agencies much-needed additional resources to administer fair housing laws and ensure that families across Illinois have equal access to housing.”
FHIP organizations partner with HUD to help people identify government agencies that handle complaints of housing discrimination. They also conduct preliminary investigation of claims, including sending "testers" to properties suspected of practicing housing discrimination. Testers are minorities and whites with the same financial qualifications who evaluate whether housing providers treat equally-qualified people differently.
Under this announcement, the following state organizations and non-profits received HUD funding:
· Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago: $300,000
· Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc.: $300,000
· Hope Fair Housing Center: $300,000
· John Marshall Law School: $424,972.75
· Open Communities: $395,110.54
· Prairie State Legal Services, Inc.: $300,000
· South Suburban Housing Center: $425,000