Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California

FHANC has several goals to successfully achieve our mission to ensure equal housing opportunity and to educate our communities on the value of diversity in our neighborhoods.

1. Eradicate discrimination in the rental market through community education, tenant empowerment and advocacy, and identification and investigation of fair housing violations

2. Eradicate discrimination in the mortgage lending market through homeowner counseling and identification and investigation of systemic violations

3. Improve industry members' compliance with fair housing laws through the development of collaborative relationships and offering services such as trainings and modules developed by FHANC staff on fair housing laws.

4. Educate community members to address the principles, practices and the value of fair housing as a tool to increase access to housing as well as to other critical resources such as education and employment.

FHANC has several approaches to addressing housing discrimination:
1) Provide services for tenants to eradicate discrimination in the rental market with the following goals: educate the community; empower tenants to advocate for their own fair housing rights; and identify, combat, and prevent systemic fair housing violations;

2) provide services for homeowners and homebuyers in order to eradicate discrimination in the mortgage lending market, and ensure that communities are diverse and welcoming, with the following goals: Assist distressed homeowners with preserving their homes as part of a key asset building strategy for members of protected classes and integral component of maintaining diverse communities; and Identify, combat and prevent systemic violations;

3) offer services to the housing industry so they understand their responsibilities and rights under fair housing laws, ultimately making it easier for tenants and homeowners in protected classes to assert their fair housing rights, by improving industry members’ compliance with fair housing laws through the development of collaborative relationships and provision of education/limited counseling services;

4) provide services to the community so that community members understand the principles, practices, and value of fair housing as a tool to increase access to housing as well as to other critical resources such as education and employment, through the following: engage in systemic enforcement efforts to make a meaningful impact within the jurisdictions served; improve the housing practices of the jurisdictions served; and educate the community on the value of diversity. (This includes engaging in advocacy and impact work designed to maximize housing opportunity within all jurisdictions served.)

The agency (originally Fair Housing of Marin and only serving Marin residents) was incorporated in 1984 and gradually expanded in size and scope. In 2009, in response to the foreclosure crisis, the agency began providing foreclosure prevention services and eventually in 2013 began offering a pre-purchase program to educate homebuyers to avoid scams and predatory lending. In 2013 the agency formed a legal department, and expanded its staff and services from 2016 – 2018 to include jurisdictions in the counties of Sonoma and Solano to better serve marginalized communities. The agency receives funding from all the jurisdictions it serves and has received significant funding from the U.S. Dept. of HUD for decades, with a healthy reserve to overcome financial hardships. The staff has expanded gradually to address need and its strategic goals, with an active and diverse board; 4 staff members speak Spanish, and in addition Portuguese, Mandarin, and some French is spoken. Currently the agency has a robust housing counseling program in which it counsels victims of housing discrimination, investigates, and files complaints on behalf of clients or the community in order effect policy change. In addition, FHANC is engaged in robust education and advocacy efforts in the communities it serves.

FHANC expanded geographically and programmatically outside its traditional service area of Marin and beyond its housing counseling services to renters. FHANC expanded its programs to include counseling to homeowners and homebuyers and began offering fair housing services in the counties of Sonoma and Solano. FHANC offers its foreclosure prevention and pre-purchase education/counseling services to residents of the Bay Area.

In FY18-19, FHANC provided counseling or education to 4,747 tenants, homeowners, homebuyers, housing providers, children, social service providers, and advocates. FHANC resolved 592 fair housing rental cases, was granted 89 reasonable accommodation requests for clients with disabilities, filed 15 administrative fair housing complaints, filed 1 lawsuit in federal court, and garnered $71,140 in settlements for clients and FHANC. Our bilingual foreclosure prevention counselor assisted 71 distressed homeowners and guided several of them through the Keep Your Home California program totaling in $228,197 issued to clients. Our bilingual Education Director educated 221 prospective homebuyers through 6 pre-purchase education workshops. FHANC also conducted the School Program series: 2,698 children attended 18 storytelling shows about diversity and inclusion; 100 children participated in the Fair Housing School Programs. To promote fair housing and diversity in our community, FHANC hosted its annual fair housing conference. FHANC staff also trained through fair housing presentations 379 tenants and staff from service agencies and 201 housing providers.

In 2019, FHANC finalized the Strategic Plan 2020-2025. The plan lays out three specific long-term goals:
•Housing discrimination in our three counties greatly declines.
•Housing stability in our service area increases.
•Our communities believe in and defend fairness and respect for people who look, feel, and think differently.

To that end, we have designed objectives to guide our work through 2025. Our primary goal is to educate and advocate for deep, wide, and durable respect for fair housing rights in Marin, Solano, and Sonoma Counties, promoting a powerfully equitable housing system over time. The objectives include:
•Scale up our education to tenants about fair housing laws by creating virtual trainings and workshops so that tenants can attend remotely.
•Expand our education about fair housing and protected classes to housing agencies and policymakers covering every major city in our three counties.
•Ensure that our fair housing testing program prioritizes those areas where fair housing infrastructure is especially lacking and/or the incidence of violations are especially high.
•Establish collaborative relationships with the most important offices for our work in each county (e.g. county supervisors, city mayors, city council members, and other policymakers)
•Advocate for increased legal protections for those the federal government has excluded, such as the LGBTQIA+ community.