Fair Housing Center gains kudos for work

6/26/2003

The Toledo Fair Housing Center was chosen by a national civil rights agency to receive a Fair Housing Best Practices Award for efforts to fight predatory lending activities.

The local center, founded in 1975, was one of 14 housing agencies nationwide selected by the Equal Rights Center, of Washington, for coming up with best practices in fair housing education, compliance, and enforcement. The awards were funded by a grant from the Fair Housing Initiatives Program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Toledo Fair Housing Center was recognized because it developed educational materials and broadcast public service announcements — featuring U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) — as a way to combat predatory lending.

“The program is innovative and has some techniques that reach out to the community about predatory lending in general,” said Victoria Luna, civil rights specialist at the Equal Rights Center.