Funding for the Fair Housing Initiatives Program must be increased. These new funds will allow a significant increase in the presence and effectiveness of a community-based program that can improve the public’s awareness about fair housing rights, develop partnerships with industry leaders in communities, support increased fair housing enforcement, and help build, or rebuild, diverse communities.

First year funding for a reformed FHIP program should be, at a minimum, $52 million. In order to create a strong presence in our nation’s communities, FHIP eventually should support full funding of private fair housing organizations to conduct enforcement activity in each of the 363 Metropolitan Statistical Areas, ^[165] at a cost of approximately $109 million per year.

Additional funding for national educational campaigns and local, regional and national enforcement projects should also increase. Overall, the projected appropriations for an expanded FHIP program over the next six years would increase significantly, including routine increases in the amount provided to organizations for enforcement, for education, and for national media campaigns. And in order to ensure that the fair housing issues in communities are approached holistically, fair housing groups should be permitted to secure funds for both education and enforcement in the same year.

Because disability-based complaints make up the largest percentage of the complaints filed, HUD should encourage fair housing organizations to develop contractual partnerships with disability-based organizations on testing, education and enforcement strategies.

Next Section: Reform FHIP Management

Footnotes

[165] OMB Bulletin 08-01 (November 2007).