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The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) is a consortium of more than 220 private, non-profit fair housing organizations, state and local civil rights agencies, and individuals from throughout the United States. NFHA’s program areas are education and learning, enforcement, hurricane relief, industry relations and compliance, membership services, partnerships with other nonprofit agencies and community groups, and public policy and advocacy.

History
In 1988, the same year as the Fair Housing Amendments Act was passed, fair housing groups from California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin banded together to establish the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA). Members of NFHA worked with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Congress to create the first program to directly fund private, nonprofit fair housing agencies to conduct education and enforcement activities.

From 1988 to 1990, NFHA was entirely a volunteer organization. The board of directors volunteered its time to develop goals, objectives, and programs to govern the agency. Board members donated their time and paid all of their travel costs and expenses until 2000 when NFHA began reimbursing travel costs to attend quarterly meetings. In 1989 NFHA opened an office in Washington, DC with donated office space and aided by an anonymous $20,000 dollar contribution which allowed NFHA to hire part-time assistance.

Throughout the next few years, the work of NFHA continued to grow and gain prominence. In 1995 three new fair housing centers were established in California, Alabama, and Louisiana. In 2000 NFHA created Fair Housing School© to provide comprehensive training of fair housing practitioners and continued development of enforcement, research, and education strategies.

Accomplishments

 * In 1992 NFHA initiated the first national investigation of redlining practices by homeowners’ insurance companies.
 * In 1993 NFHA conducted the first large-scale mortgage lending testing and investigation project.
 * In 1993 NFHA addressed the national meetings of the American Bankers and Mortgage Bankers Association, and the American Bankers Association invited NFHA to write two articles for its publication to educate bankers about lending discrimination.
 * In 1994 NFHA filed complaints against three of the nation’s largest homeowners’ insurance companies: State Farm, Allstate, and Nationwide.
 * In 1996, after two years of negotiation, NFHA induced State Farm to sign a conciliation agreement resolving the 1994 complaint, which changed the way homeowners’ insurance is underwritten in the United States.
 * In 1997 NFHA negotiated a conciliation agreement with Allstate and continued filing insurance complaints against other companies.
 * In 1998 NFHA filed its first Federal Court action against Liberty Mutual Insurance Company.
 * In 1999 NFHA and other plaintiffs settled the Liberty Mutual lawsuit. NFHA’s portion of the settlement created a $3.25 million grant and loan pool for homeowners in selected African American neighborhoods in Washington, DC.
 * In 2000 NFHA joined other fair housing groups from around the country to bring an insurance discrimination lawsuit against Travelers/Aetna Insurance Companies and Citigroup.
 * In 2001, after two years of failed negotiations, NFHA and other fair housing groups filed a federal lawsuit against Prudential Insurance Companies for discriminatory practices and policies.

Recent Events

 * NFHA sponsored the publication of Segregation: the Rising Costs for America, edited by James H. Carr and Nandine K, in 2008. Segregation documents how discriminatory practices in the housing markets through most of the century have produced extreme levels of residential segregation that result in significant disparities in access to good jobs, quality education, homeownership attainment and asset accumulation between minority and non-minority households.


 * NFHA celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the passage of the federal Fair Housing Act in June 2008.