Expanding Fair Housing and Testing in New York State Capital Region

In 2021, the New York State Legislature established the “Anti-Discrimination in Housing Fund” (Appendix IV) to be made available to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG). Monies from the fund can be utilized for the allocation of grants to support fair housing testing and enforcement to county, city, town or villages through local human rights commissions or other agencies, as well as not-for-profit agencies specializing in the prevention of unlawful discrimination in housing.

The OAG seeks to utilize funding from the anti-discrimination in housing fund to expand fair housing testing and services in New York State. Currently, there are six full service Qualified Fair Housing Organizations (QFHOs), as designated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, that are operating full-service fair housing programs in parts of the State. However, there are areas in the state that are not covered by QFHOs at all, and other areas that are so vast in size they could use additional fair housing support.

The Capital Region, including Albany, is the most populous region of the state that does not have a QFHO. Expanding fair housing testing and enforcement in that region would help protect families from discrimination. Additionally, there may be other parts of the state that could use additional assistance, but further investigation is needed to discover where and how resources would be best deployed, particularly in regions that have existing QFHOs and other fair housing resources to ensure all resources are used most effectively.

Therefore, the OAG anticipates awarding, through this Request for Applications, grants of varying amounts to create one or two new fair housing testing and enforcement program(s) in the Capital Region. Grantees will include an organization or organizations interested in creating an emerging fair housing program as well as qualified fair housing organization to offer training and technical assistance to the emerging fair housing organization(s) as well as assist the OAG in identifying additional regions or localities in New York State that could benefit from additional fair housing support.

Qualified organizations interested in applying for these funds must complete this application.

A copy of the Request for Applications (RFA) #24-008 will be available at the OAG website on October 2, 2024:

https://ag.ny.gov/resources/organizations/contract-procurement-opportunities/request-applications

Questions/inquiries and/or requests for clarification will only be accepted via e­mail and in writing and should be submitted to the following e­mail address: purchase@ag.ny.gov with the subject line of “RFA #24-008 – Expanding Fair Housing Testing and Enforcement in New York’s Capital Region - Questions”.

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