Agency Details:

Border Fair Housing & Economic Justice Center

To ensure greater compliance with federal,state and local laws through a multifaceted fair housing program that includes collaboration and partnership with the public and private sector, education and outreach, counseling and advocacy, best practice initiatives, community development, research & planning, and the enforcement of civil rights and consumer protection law in the colonias and communities in the Southwest United States.

Description:
Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act), as amended, prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of dwellings, and in other housing-related transactions, based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (including children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregnant women, and people securing custody of children under the age of 18), and handicap (disability).
The BFHC will:
Conduct a complaint intake.
Investigate the complaint
Facilitate mediation between both parties, or:
Refer the complaint to the proper authorities
If necessary, refer client to legal resources.

History:
The Border Fair Housing and Economic Justice Center (BFHC) was created in April 2004 by community leaders from the private and public sectors who live and work along the U.S.-Mexico border. With support from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC),a national not-for-profit civil rights membership organization whose mission is to increase fair and equal access to credit, capital, and banking services and products and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the BFHC was created as a Fair Housing Initiative Program (FHIP). FHIPs are organizations that provide assistance to individuals who believe they have been victims of housing discrimination. In addition, they help individuals identify government agencies that can help and conduct preliminary investigation of claims, including sending "testers" to properties suspected of practicing housing discrimination.

Contact people:

Merced A. Jasso, Fair Housing Specialist, (phone), (email) Anibal Olague, Executive Director, (phone) Olga Torres, Employee, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (575) 647-1462

Languages Spoken: English, Spanish

Address:

1050 Monte Vista Ave. Las Cruces, NM 88001 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.borderfairhousing.org

Directions:

Corner of Espina and Monte Vista, two block north of the University and Espina intersection

Last updated on December 18, 2008