Fair Housing Initiatives Program - Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI) | FR 6900 N 21 C

Opportunity Information: Apply for FR 6900 N 21 C

The Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) - Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI) is a discretionary grant opportunity from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) designed to strengthen on-the-ground enforcement of fair housing laws. FHIP was created after Congress amended the Fair Housing Act in 1988, establishing a dedicated funding program to help organizations work alongside HUD to prevent or eliminate discriminatory housing practices, as reflected in 42 USC 3616a(a). Within FHIP, HUD funds work through three separate competitive initiatives: the Fair Housing Organization Initiative (FHOI), the Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI), and the Education and Outreach Initiative (EOI). PEI specifically focuses on enforcement and casework rather than general public education.

The central purpose of PEI is to provide multi-year funding to a nationwide network of eligible fair housing enforcement organizations so they can identify, investigate, and pursue remedies for housing discrimination. The activities emphasized in this initiative include conducting fair housing testing (for example, paired testing to detect differential treatment), taking in and investigating complaints from members of the public, and supporting enforcement actions under the federal Fair Housing Act as well as equivalent state and local fair housing laws that provide similar rights and remedies for discriminatory housing practices. In practical terms, PEI is meant to expand capacity for organizations that do direct enforcement work and can demonstrate a track record of pursuing credible, meritorious claims.

Eligibility is limited to organizations that meet HUDs definitions and experience requirements for either a Qualified Fair Housing Enforcement Organization (QFHO) or a Fair Housing Enforcement Organization (FHO). To qualify as a QFHO, an applicant must have at least two years of experience in key enforcement functions such as complaint intake, complaint investigation, testing for fair housing violations, and enforcement-related experience involving meritorious claims within the three years before applying. To qualify as an FHO, an applicant must have at least one year of experience in those same enforcement-related activities during the two years before applying. HUD requires applicants to complete Appendix B, the Certification for PEI Applicants, to certify their QFHO or FHO status, and HUD evaluates whether the applicant itself has the required experience.

The notice also makes clear that an affiliate does not automatically inherit QFHO or FHO status from a parent organization, even if the parent is qualified and has a separate Employer Identification Number. HUD will assess the affiliate organizations experience independently, meaning the affiliate must demonstrate its own qualifying history of enforcement-related activities. This is important for organizations with multiple chapters, branches, or legally distinct entities, because each applicant entity must stand on its own for eligibility purposes.

Several restrictions narrow who can apply. Co-applicants or consortium members are not eligible under this PEI announcement, so applications must come from a single eligible organization rather than a partnership applying jointly. Individuals, foreign entities, and sole proprietorship organizations are also explicitly ineligible to compete for or receive awards under this NOFO. Additionally, HUD flags a duplication issue between PEI and certain FHOI funding: if an organization applies for both a PEI grant and an FHOI Continuing Development Component (CDC) grant and receives both awards, HUD will rescind the FHOI-CDC funding if the funded activities are exactly alike or substantially similar. That condition is intended to prevent overlapping federal support for the same work under two different components.

For organizations that do not meet the QFHO or FHO eligibility standards (as referenced in 24 CFR 125.103 and 125.401), HUD points to other FHIP-related competitions that may be a better fit, including the Education and Outreach Initiative (EOI), Tester Coordinator Training, and the Fair Housing Organizations Initiative (FHOI). Each of those has its own eligibility and program design, and they are positioned as alternatives for groups that are building capacity, focusing on outreach, or developing testing infrastructure but do not yet meet the enforcement-experience thresholds for PEI.

Key opportunity details provided in the source data include the Funding Opportunity Number FR 6900 N 21 C, CFDA number 14.418, and a Housing funding activity category. The application closing date is listed as 2025-08-21. HUD anticipates making about 24 awards, with an award ceiling of $425,000.

• The Department of Housing and Urban Development in the housing sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Fair Housing Initiatives Program - Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 14.418.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2025-07-29.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-08-21. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $425,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 24 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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