Marin Community Foundation (MCF) Awards Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California $200,000 per year for three years

July 1, 2024
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
 
Contact:
Caroline Peattie, Executive Director, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California, (415) 483-7552, [email protected]
 
Audrey Perrott, Development Director, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California, (628) 272-9848, [email protected]
 
Subject: Marin Community Foundation (MCF) Awards Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California $200,000 per year for three years
 
Through Marin Community Foundation’s (MCF’s) new funding initiative, the Community Power Initiative, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California (FHANC) and 79 other nonprofits and/or collaborations serving Marin County were awarded $30 million to be paid over three years. 
 
MCF’s new funding strategy provides flexible, multi-year general operating support grants. The Community Power Initiative will primarily fund organizations that serve underrepresented and underserved populations. Although the initiative serves County-wide programs, MCF is giving special attention to marginalized neighborhoods, the Canal area in San Rafael, Marin City, and pockets of West Marin and Novato.
 
This crucial funding will enable FHANC to promote long-term housing security and fair, accessible, and equitable housing for all, through prevention, intervention, systemic change through investigations and legal action, and systemic change through policy advocacy. FHANC’s focus is on members of protected classes, including members of communities of color, people with limited-English proficiency, people with disabilities, seniors, LGBTQ+ people, Housing Choice Voucher recipients, and families with children, who have been disproportionately affected by systemic discrimination and are at a greater risk of being displaced from stable housing and/or becoming homeless.

FHANC will expand its outreach capacity to better reach protected classes to inform them of their fair housing rights as well as provide resources and complaint referral so FHANC can counsel and advocate for more residents. FHANC will provide fair housing, prepurchase, and foreclosure prevention services. FHANC is planning a number of community events to educate tenants with disabilities; community members and nonprofit staff; public and private housing providers; community members, agency staff, and other stakeholders; and local, state, and federal jurisdictional staff on fair housing laws. “We are extremely grateful to MCF for this significant investment in FHANC, its clients, and the Marin community,” said Caroline Peattie, Executive Director of FHANC. “This grant provides FHANC with the flexibility to use funds in a way that allows us to most effectively serve our clients and advocate for fair housing policies. We are excited and honored to work with MCF as our partner.” 

Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California (FHANC) is a non-profit organization serving several Bay Area counties that provides free counseling, enforcement, intervention, and legal or administrative referrals to persons experiencing housing discrimination. FHANC also offers foreclosure prevention counseling, pre-purchase education, seminars to help housing providers fully understand fair housing law, and education programs for tenants and the community at large. FHANC is a HUD-Certified Housing Counseling Agency. If you have experienced housing discrimination as a renter, homebuyer, or homeowner (in any housing transaction – from your landlord, realtor, lender, insurer, or appraiser), contact FHANC’s office to complete an interview. Contact FHANC at [email protected] or 415-457-5025 x101 or TDD: (800) 735-2922 for more information.

Download full press release here