HOPE Fair Housing Center has been very busy over the past three months and we wanted to take a moment to share with you some exciting progress and accomplishments we’ve had during this time. We continue to provide our support and critical services to our local communities, and we hope that you and your family are staying safe & healthy!

Retrofit Funding Program Update

In April of this year, HOPE launched a new program to assist families in need of greater accessibility within their homes. This retrofit funding program was designed to provide aid to families who could not otherwise afford to alter their homes to meet their accessibility needs. Since this program began, HOPE has funded 15 home accessibility projects around the state of Illinois, some of which included adding bathroom grab bars to bathroom areas, replacing regular showers with accessible showers, adding chairlifts to staircases, constructing outdoor ramps to home entrances, and widening doorways in homes for greater user-friendliness.

One project that stood out to us especially involved a couple from Northern Illinois who both have mobility impairments. After the chairlift they used to get to and from the second floor of their home broke, they were unable to afford a new one, and unable to gain access to their bedroom. The couple then spent months sleeping in their kitchen chairs at night because they could not access the second floor of their home to sleep in their own bed. They then discovered and applied for help through HOPE’s Retrofit Program, and we were able to purchase and install a new chairlift for their use in their home (pictured below). They are now finally able to sleep in their bed again and enjoy their home to the fullest!

Programs like this one allow HOPE to affect immediate change to better people’s lives. If you would like to help be a part of changing someone’s life by funding our retrofit program, please use our donation page, or contact Rachel Watson at Rachel.watson@hopefair.org for more information.

HOPE in the News

HOPE and our new Executive Director, Evelyn Sanguinetti, have recently been featured in a variety of media publications in both English and Spanish, highlighting our dedication to fair housing. In case you missed them on our Facebook and Twitter pages, check out links to these stories below!

2020 Fair Housing Initiatives Program Grant

HOPE is thrilled to announce that we have again been awarded nearly $360,000 in FHIP grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to continue our fight against housing discrimination in Illinois!  Click here to read the official press release.

Enforcement Case Update

We are pleased to announce that we have reached a settlement in our case against the company Morningside Group. HOPE alleged, after performing testing on subject properties, that the defendants’ design and construction of affordable multi-family apartment complexes in Illinois did not meet minimum requirements under the Fair Housing Act in certain respects concerning accessible kitchens, bathrooms, and accessible routes. HOPE and Morningside have agreed to retrofit plans and that Morningside will undergo fair housing training. This agreement will allow for hundreds of families across Illinois to have fully accessible homes, a decision that will last for generations.

Education Update

With the cancellation of most in-person events across the state, HOPE staff has transitioned to virtual educational trainings for community members as well as other organizations looking to learn more about fair housing laws and protections. Since April, we have conducted training sessions in both English and Spanish for over 300 attendees, including special sessions for landlords and realtors and we have even more upcoming, exciting training sessions on the calendar! Some examples of sessions that we offer include:

• General fair housing knowledge 
• Rights for victims of domestic violence
• Protections based on national origin
• Training for housing providers

If you would like to have a HOPE staff member speak to your community or organization, or partner with us for a training session, please contact our Community Engagement and Education Coordinator, Rachel Watson, at mailto:rachel.watson@hopefair.org 

HOPE is currently working on redesigning our website to better serve our community! Our new, easy to use site will increase accessibly for our visitors and offer more resources and information to the public about housing discrimination than ever before. We are also developing an online portal for anyone to use to report housing discrimination, which will be available 24/7 on our website. Exciting changes are coming and we cant wait to share them with you! Stay tuned for our next newsletter in the fall!

If you are as passionate about fair housing as we are, and want to help in the fight against  discrimination, please consider supporting HOPE's mission by making a donation here. 

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