What Established the Black and Latinx Community Reinvestment Fund? The Fair Housing Center, National Fair Housing Alliance, and 19 other fair housing organizations throughout the country, reached a landmark $53 million settlement with Fannie Mae to resolve a lawsuit alleging that Fannie Mae treated foreclosed homes in Black and Latinx communities unfavorably, harming those communities. The Fair Housing Center and its partners alleged that Fannie Mae maintained and marketed its foreclosed homes in predominantly White neighborhoods while allowing similar homes in Black and Latinx communities to fall into disrepair and that this differential treatment exacerbated the damage caused by the 2008 mortgage crisis and impeded recovery from the crisis in Black and Latinx neighborhoods.
The Federal Fair Housing Act requires banks and servicers to maintain and sell properties they own without regard to the race or national origin of residents living in the area in which the property is located. Differential treatment of neighborhoods damages those neighborhoods, prevents neighborhood stabilization and economic recovery. The settlement will help rebuild and strengthen communities of color in 39 metropolitan areas including Greater Cleveland.
What is the Purpose of this Survey? The Greater Cleveland area was at the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis in the United States, a crisis that was exacerbated by the failure to maintain and market bank-owned foreclosed properties in communities of color in a nondiscriminatory manner. We want to gain insight directly from the community on how the Black and Latinx Community Reinvestment Fund will be most impactful to some of the hardest hit neighborhoods within our community and where funds may help to fill program and service gaps for future programming. The Fair Housing Center has received $755,000 from the settlement for reinvestment in Black and Latinx communities within Cuyahoga County.
About the Fair Housing Center for Rights & Research:
Mission Statement: To protect and expand fair housing rights, eliminate housing discrimination, and promote integrated communities
History: The Fair Housing Center is a nonprofit, fair housing agency that promotes equal housing opportunities and positive race relations in Northeast Ohio. First established in 1983 as the Metropolitan Strategy Group, the organization incorporated as the Housing Research & Advocacy Center in 2003 and rebranded as the Fair Housing Center for Rights & Research in 2018. The Fair Housing Center advocates to ensure, through research, educational programs, public policy and enforcement activities, that all residents are guaranteed equitable access to housing.
The Fair Housing Center will accept survey responses through 4/30/2023. Please help spread the word!
Attend a Listening Session
In addition to gathering community insight from the survey, the Fair Housing Center for Rights & Research will also be hosting several listening sessions to allow community members to share their input on the Black and Latinx Community Reinvestment Fund. Visit www.thehousingcenter.org/events to learn more and register to attend a listening session.