Supporting Fair Housing Testing and Enforcement in New York State

In 2021, the New York State Legislature established the “Anti-Discrimination in Housing Fund”(Attachment E) to be made available to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG). Monies from the fund can be utilized for the allocation of grants to support fair housing testing and enforcement to county, city, town or villages through local human rights commissions or other agencies, as well as not-for-profit agencies specializing in the prevention of unlawful discrimination in housing. The OAG seeks to utilize funding from the anti-discrimination in housing fund to support fair housing testing and services in New York State. Currently, there are six full service Qualified Fair Housing Organizations (QFHOs), as designated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, that are operating full-service fair housing programs in parts of the State. These organizations often serve large geographic areas and face challenges on how best to deploy their resources across these areas and how to identify areas or issues in need of fair housing testing and enforcement. These challenges are exacerbated by the current and expected reduction of federal funds to support fair housing initiatives. In addition, New York State has human rights laws that offer express protection to New Yorkers beyond those listed in the federal fair housing law. These include protections against discrimination based on age, marital status, military status, sexual orientation, lawful source of income, domestic violence status, gender identity or expression, arrest record resolved in complainants favor, and citizenship/immigration status. As New York has deemed these classes deserve protection under state law, it is important that there are funds provided by the state to ensure these protections are enforced. In order to support ongoing and equitable enforcement of fair housing laws the OAG anticipates awarding through this Request for Applications up to $1.095 million to existing Qualified Fair Housing Organizations. Qualified organizations interested in applying for these funds must complete this application. Through this RFA the OAG anticipates awarding up to six grants to the New York-based QFHOs are eligible for funding. Qualified organizations interested in applying for these funds must complete this application. A copy of the Request for Applications (RFA) #25-009 will be available at the OAG website on December 15, 2025:https://ag.ny.gov/resources/organizations/contract-procurement-opportunities/request-applications Questions/inquiries and/or requests for clarification will only be accepted via email and in writing and should be submitted to the following email address: [email protected] with the subject line of “Questions for RFA #25-009 – Supporting Fair Housing Testing and Enforcement in New York State”. To receive email notifications regarding updates to the content or status of a particular ad, you must “bookmark the ad” on the upper right-hand side of the ad, then return to your Account,view your list of bookmarked ads, and then select “send me notification updates” option listed to the right of the ad. Any updates to Solicitation documents will also be posted and released through the NYSCR. If you do not opt-in to receive notification updates regarding a specific ad, you will not receive email notifications regarding updates, including email notifications regarding the questions and answers document and updates to Solicitation documents. Business enterprises awarded an identical or substantially similar procurement contract within the past five years: United Tenants of Albany, Inc. Fair Housing Justice Center, Inc. Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business (SDVOB) SDVOB Goal: 0.00% Minority / Women Business Enterprise contracting goals (MWBE) MBE Goal: 0.00% WBE Goal: 0.00% Disadvantaged Business Enterprise contracting goals (DBE) DBE Goal: 0.00%