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complaints with the Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) Office of the U.S. Department <br />of Housing and Urban Development and 1 inquiry for assistance is pending. <br />• Unfair Lending: This impediment refers to underwriting, marketing and pricing that <br />discriminates because of income, race or ethnicity of the residents in the area where the <br />property is located. Evaluation of 2008 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data found <br />there was disparities in loan approval /denial rates among racial and ethnic borrowers, in <br />particular, Hispanic applicants have higher loan denial rates than White, Non - Hispanic <br />borrowers. Due to budget and staffing constraints, no progress was made during the 2013- <br />2014 Program Year. <br />• Zoning Policies and Practices: Federal and state fair housing laws, require all local governments <br />to affirmatively further fair housing opportunities. One way is to make reasonable <br />accommodations in building, land use, and housing when necessary to afford disabled persons <br />an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. <br />2. Actions to Overcome Identified Impediments <br />During the 2013 -2014 report period the City undertook the following actions (on its own or in <br />cooperation with regional partners) to overcome the impediments to fair housing choices identified <br />in the regional Al. <br />Santa Ana contracted with FHCOC to provide comprehensive educational and enforcement <br />programs to City residents. Actions taken during the 2013 -2014 report period included: <br />• Fair Housing Community Education'— During 2013 -2014 the FHCOC participated in 50 education <br />and /or outreach activities, reaching a culturally and ethnically diverse audience, in which we <br />made participants aware of fair housing laws and our counseling services, including those to <br />help them improve their readiness for a home purchase <br />• Fair Housing Enforcement— FHCOC staff responded to 50 housing discrimination complaints <br />that resulted in the opening of a case file; six of these cases involved the City of Santa Ana. <br />• Housing Dispute Evaluation — On a regional basis, activities provided by FHCOC included <br />assisting approximately 3,220 unduplicated regional - households. Of these 907 <br />unduplicated households were from Santa Ana. On a regional basis, FHCOC conducted 174 <br />paired, on -site, systemic tests for discriminatory housing practices. These were split <br />between 30 tests of for -sale real estate brokerage transactions and 144 rental- housing <br />transactions. Additionally, the FHCOC conducted five paired, on -site tests related to <br />complaints received from the general public, 17 paired telephone tests and one site <br />accessibility assessment. <br />• FHCOC's website has an on -line housing discrimination complaint reporting tool that generates <br />an e-mail to FHCOC. It is also used for other non - discrimination and housing - related issues. A <br />lack of funding has prevented the FHCOC's ability to implement necessary upgrades to the <br />website that will help further differentiate between discrimination complaints and to help <br />12 DRAFT 2013 -2014 CAPER <br />f6" 9t X11 <br />