Fair Housing

In 1988, the Fair Housing Initiatives Program was established to assist public and private organizations fight housing discrimination. GAO was asked to review how funds are allocated among funding categories and what level demand exists for funds, and who receives funds and how they are being used. From the program's inception through fiscal year 1997, the Congress has appropriated $113 million to carry out this program. Funds are allocated among four funding categories: private enforcement for private nonprofit groups; the fair housing organizations initiative for private nonprofit entities, education and outreach for private and public entities, and administrative enforcement for state and local agencies. The largest portion, more than $40 million, has been made available for the private enforcement initiative. Through fiscal 1996, 220 organizations in 44 states and the District of Columbia received program grants. Other than enforcement activities, funds have been used for a variety of other activities, such as litigation, new fair housing organizations, pamphlets and brochures, advertisements, and conferences and seminars on fair housing.

GAO noted that: (1) from the program's inception through fiscal year (FY) 1997, the Congress has appropriated $113 million to carry out the Fair Housing Initiatives Program; (2) the Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, judgmentally determines how funds are allocated among the four initiatives on the basis of the program legislation, the administration's and the agency's priorities, and input from the housing industry and fair housing groups; (3) the agency's budget requests to the Congress set forth how it plans to divide the total program dollars among the four initiatives; (4) the largest portion, more than $40 million, has been budgeted and made available for the private enforcement initiative; (5) as measured by the amounts requested on applications, for the 3 most recent years, fiscal years 1994 through 1996, there is also great demand for the private enforcement initiative; (6) through FY 1996, 220 different organizations in 44 states and the District of Columbia received program grants; (7) of all the funds awarded, 26 organizations received about half; (8) the largest portion of funds, about $41 million, was spent on the private enforcement initiative for activities aimed at determining the existence of discrimination in renting, sales, and lending, primarily testing to investigate individual complaints and testing to investigate industry practices; (9) grantees have used funds for a variety of other fair housing activities, such as litigation, new fair housing organizations and capacity building for existing organizations, pamphlets and brochures, print, television, and radio advertisements, and conferences and seminars for housing industry professionals; and (10) other funded activities also have included special projects on mortgage lending and insurance redlining.