Fair Housing Training and Technical Assistance
Highlights
- Grantees need to learn new Assessment of Fair Housing process.
- Abt developed and delivered in-person training and direct technical assistance to grantees.
- The highly rated training resulted in several grantees having AFHs accepted by HUD.
In 2015, HUD rolled out the Assessment of Fair Housing which included a new rigorous and mandatory process for data analysis, mapping, and strategy development to help grantees make meaningful change and affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH). Abt was tasked with building the capacity of these grantees in the new planning process by providing training and technical assistance.
Abt prepared material for the Assessment of Fair Housing Guidebook, reviewed and advised on the new planning process, and developed data sets for the mapping tool. Abt worked with Enterprise Community Partners to develop and deliver a three-day, in-person training on the Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH). We also worked with 10 communities on the development or resubmission of their fair housing plans. To complete this work, Abt built an internal and subcontractor team with expertise in fair housing law, community engagement, data and analysis, goal and strategy development, and HUD program implementation.
Over 800 people attended the in-person trainings and over 1,450 people have viewed the webinar. Abt helped multiple communities strengthen their fair housing goals, enabling them to take meaningful action to address fair housing issues. Our work led to Abt being recognized as a thought leader in fair housing and the AFH process. Abt continues to provide guidance to HUD on how best to design AFFH technical assistance and meet the needs of program participants as the federal government renews its commitment to affirmatively furthering fair housing under the Biden/Harris administration.