Fair Housing Initiative Program under HUD - Essay Example

Fair Housing Initiative Program under HUD Grade (April 17, Fair Housing Initiative Program under HUD Discrimination in housing in the USA has been a major challenge, most especially related to the restriction of certain neighborhoods to certain social classes or races. Consequently, the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) was established in 1988, as an initiative meant to help fight the rampant discrimination practices in housing (Gpo.gov, 1997). The program was established to support the activities of fair housing organizations that are committed to investigating and enforcing the laws protecting people from housing discrimination, as well as undertaking other social initiatives that are meant to curb the housing discrimination, such as providing housing education and outreach activities (HUD, 2015). The FHIP remains an important component of civil rights advocacy, since most of the groups and organizations fighting against housing discrimination in the USA wholesomely depend on this funding. Therefore, the major function of the FHIP is to help people who believe that they are victims of housing discrimination to identify the relevant government agencies that handle the housing complaints (Civilrights.org, 2015). The FHIP achieves this objective through funding other fair housing advocacy groups and organizations, which in turn help the victims to transmit their complaints of the unfair housing discrimination to the relevant government authorities for subsequent actions. The mission statement of the FHIP is to eliminate any form of housing discrimination and build a secure access to quality housing for Americans (PD&R, 2011). The program has four initiatives operating under its umbrella, which include Fair Housing Organizations Initiative (FHOI), an initiative specifically meant to build capacity among the private non-profit fair housing organizations (Gpo.gov, 1997). The initiative achieves its objectives through funding fair housing enforcement initiatives, as well as education outreach initiatives on fair housing (HUD, 2015). The other initiative under the FHIP umbrella is the Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI), which is an initiative focused on facilitating the activities of nationwide fair housing groups, to prevent housing discriminative practices (HUD, 2015). The third initiative under the FHIP is the Education and Outreach Initiative (EOI), which is an initiative that specifically focuses on the funding the State, local governments or non-profit agencies that are involved in creating awareness among the public and the housing owners on both their rights and responsibilities in complying with the Fair Housing Act (PD&R, 2011). The last initiative under the FHIP is the Administrative Enforcement Initiative (AEI), which is focused on facilitating and funding the State and the local governments to administer laws that enhance equal housing opportunities and prevents incidences of housing discrimination in their regions (HUD, 2015). The FHIP is a federal government funded program through the Congress appropriation initiative, allocates the amount of funds that the program is to spend in every calendar year of the government (Gpo.gov, 1997). The FHIP in turn distributes the funds to the various initiatives under its umbrella as a result of evaluated funding needs, after which the different initiatives then disburses the funding to different organizations, groups and agencies based on a cooperative agreement (Civilrights.org, 2015).The FHIP partners with different State and local government agencies, and public or private non-profit organizations and groups in fighting housing discrimination throughout the USA. The eligibility requirements for funding by the FHIP is that the State or local government agency, public or private non-profit organization or advocacy groups should be formulating, promoting and carrying out programs that eliminate and prevent discriminative housing practices (HUD, 2015). Strengths Wide partnership and coverage The major strength associated with Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) is its wide coverage. The FHIP offers funding for different organizations, agencies and groups that offer a wide range of fair housing activities and initiatives, which includes testing the fair housing practices, enforcing the fair housing laws and regulations, and creating awareness of the fair housing practices. The FHIP also promotes the awareness of the rights of the house owners and the tenants, and also their responsibilities under the Fair Housing Act (PD&R, 2011). In this respect, the FHIP program partners with numerous organizations, where the program supports the continued development of the existing, as well as promoting the rise of new fair housing organizations and agencies. The partnership between FHIP and the different agencies, organizations and groups is effective since the program has divided the funding into different categories. The different partners and stakeholders involved in eliminating discriminative housing practices are funded for different initiatives. For example, the State and the local government fair housing agencies are funded to support the development and enforcement of laws and regulations that eliminate and prevent discriminative housing practices within their regions (HUD, 2015). The State and the local government agencies can only qualify for this program if they offer substantially equivalent rights and remedies as are espoused under the Fair Housing Act (PD&R, 2011). On the other hand, the education and outreach initiatives for fair housing awareness are not restricted as much, such that many organizations, agencies and institutions can qualify for this initiative. Thus, the education and outreach initiative is funded for many organizations which include nonprofit fair housing agencies, organizations and groups, both public and private education institutions such as universities and colleges undertaking the fair housing awareness and outreach programs, as well as faith-based and community-based organizations promoting the elimination of discriminative housing practices (HUD, 2015). The wide partnership and coverage of the Fair Housing Initiatives Program serves to ensure that its objectives, mission and initiatives are received and implemented in every part of the USA. This is owing to the fact that the program partners with different levels of stakeholders that are cable of spreading and implementing the fair housing initiative down to the grassroots. Therefore, the extensive spread of the Fair Housing Initiatives Program has helped to ensure that the program is not concentrated on one region or targeting a certain section of the community. Instead, due to its highly spread partnerships and stakeholders initiatives, the FHIP touches on every region of the USA, since with partnerships and recruitment of the State and local government, educational institutions such as colleges and universities, faith-based organizations and community-based organizations, the impact, influence and advocacy of the Fair Housing Initiatives Program spreads and trickles downwards to the very small units of the society (PD&R, 2011). This in turn ensures that the program success and effectiveness is high. Efficiency in resource utilization The other major strength associated with the Fair Housing Initiatives Program is that the program promotes efficiency of resource use. The FHIP enhances the efficiency of resource use through reducing the work, time and finance burden that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the State and the local governments would use, through investigating and settling complaints that would have otherwise required the intervention of these government authorities (HUD, 2015). The partnership between the FHIP and the fair housing organizations (FHOs) helps to investigate, evaluate and settle housing discrimination complaints at different levels, ensuring that the complaints that are passed over the HUD, the State and the local government authorities are those complaints that are weighty, and which warrant the merit of these authorities’ investigation and action. According to a study that was released by the Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R), evaluating fifteen years that the FHIP has been in operation, only 15% out of the 6,208 housing discrimination complaints that were successfully investigated were passed over to the HUD, State or local government agencies (D &R, 2011). Further, among all these cases that were investigated, 43% were found not to be involving any housing discrimination practices, and thus they were done away with. However, 27% of the cases were found to be involving unfair housing practices that amounted to discrimination of the complainants, and they were effectively resolved by the agencies, organizations or other fair housing advocacy groups and institutions, without the need to transfer them to the HUD or the state or local governments (PD&R, 2011). These statistics indicate that FHIP has played a great role in enhancing the efficiency of use of resources dedicated to fighting the housing discrimination practices. This is because, if the investigations were left to be undertaken and resolved by the HUD, the State or the local government, such investigations or complaints and their resolution would take very long, while the financial resources consumed would have been much higher. Further, according to the results of this study, it is in fact only 1% of the total housing discrimination complaints that proceeded to a housing discrimination lawsuit settled in the courts of law (PD & R:2011, n.p.). The findings of this study further indicated that the complaints that are filtered and forwarded by the FHIP partner organizations, groups and agencies to the HUD, the State or the local government are highly likely to result in a binding legal resolution, as compared to the housing discrimination complaints that are pursued by individuals on their own. Additionally, the FHIP partners remain the most dominant entities in the testing and investigations of landlords and realtors on matters related to fair housing practices violations, where these partners participate in pursuing between 40% and 60% of these cases (PD&R, 2011). This is a great advantage for the HUD, the State and local governments, since the time, resources and manpower they would have applied to pursue such cases are highly reduced by the operation of the FHIP initiatives. Adequate funding The other strength that is associated with the FHIP is the fact that it is the only federal housing program that is designed to fund private entities for the execution of enforcement, education and outreach initiatives to eliminate and prevent discriminative housing practices (PD&R, 2011). Therefore, as the sole federal entity that focuses on this issue, the FHIP is adequately funded to be able to partner with its various stakeholders to stem out the discriminative housing practices. Since the program was established in 1988, until 2014, the congressional appropriation for the program has totaled $283 million, which then allows any of the FHIP partner organizations, agencies or groups to be funded with up to $275,000 per year per a single entity (Civilrights.org, 2015). The amounts might not be adequate to cater for all the housing discrimination complaints from all over the USA. However, the fact that the FHIP is the sole program commissioned by the federal government to finance private initiatives for addressing the housing discrimination problem, ensures that it is at least well funded compared to other programs that are funded through private or individual organization initiatives. Further, the FHIP offers its funding both on the basis of merit and also geographical dispersion (Civilrights.org, 2015). This then ensures that all regions of the USA are at least reached and impacted by the funding allocated to the program each year. References Civilrights.org. (2015). The Need for a Strong Fair Housing Initiatives Program and a Coordinated Fair Housing Assistance Program: The Fair Housing Initiatives Program. Retrieved from http://www.civilrights.org/publications/reports/fairhousing/strong-program.html Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). (2015). Fair Housing Initiatives Program: Program Information. Retrieved from https://www.cfda.gov/index?s=program&mode=form&tab=core&id=9a3958512677dde2dd98c979f4ee7bd3 Gpo.gov. (1997). Fair Housing: Funding and Activities under the Fair Housing Initiatives. Retrieved from http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-67/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-67.htm Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R). (May 2011). Study of the Fair Housing Initiatives Program. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Retrieved from http://www.huduser.org/Publications/pdf/FHIP_2011.pdf Read More