Explanation
BACKGROUND: The City of Columbus Department of Finance and Management, Grants Management Section administers U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grants, including the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), which carry a requirement from the Fair Housing Act to affirmatively further fair housing. The purpose of this ordinance is to authorize the Director of the Department of Finance and Management to enter into a Subrecipient Agreement with the Legal Aid Society of Columbus (LASC) in the amount of $200,000.00 for the 2023 Fair Housing Services Grant to affirmatively further fair housing for the residents of the City of Columbus.
The Grants Management Section advertised a grant application for fair housing services on the City’s Bonfire web-based procurement portal from 10/21/2022-11/18/2022. Grants Management hosted a pre-application workshop on November 1, 2022. Ten proposals were received and scored by the evaluation committee. Based on their technical expertise and depth of services proposed, the Legal Aid Society of Columbus was selected as the City’s preferred subrecipient for this 2023 Fair Housing Services Grant.
The Legal Aid Society of Columbus will conduct activities to affirmatively further fair housing and reduce and eliminate barriers to housing opportunities, investigate all valid housing discrimination complaints and seek redress, implement testing procedures to determine the extent of discrimination, and promote awareness of Federal, State and local Fair Housing laws. All of the 2023 Fair Housing Services Grant activities will be in accordance with the program goals and objectives set forth and approved in the 2020-2024 HUD Consolidated Plan and Draft FY 2023 Annual Action Plan.
This ordinance authorizes the appropriation of that $200,000 of the CDBG fund (2248) and authorizes the Director of the Department of Finance and Management to enter into a Subrecipient Agreement with LASC to administer 2023 Fair Housi...
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