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News release

America’s Moms Honor U.S. Housing and Urban Development Assistant Secretary with MomsRising Super Hero Award

August 1, 2011
Maternal Health

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Award Presented for “SuperHeroic” Efforts to Fight House Discrimination Against Mothers and Families
WASHINGTON, DC – MomsRising, the online and on-the-ground grassroots organization with more than one million members working to achieve economic security for all families, today presented Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing Equal Opportunity John Trasviña with the organization’s Super Hero Award for his and the agency’s work to end housing discrimination against pregnant women and mothers.
 
This past spring, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a settlement agreement with a mortgage company that discriminated in home loans against new and expecting mothers. The settlement was part of the agency’s investigations into certain mortgage lenders to determine if they were following the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, familial status or disability.
 
MomsRising joined the news conference to announce the settlement and worked with HUD to raise awareness of women’s and mother’s housing rights.  The organization has also collected more than 200 stories from women who have experienced housing discrimination and today presented Assistant Secretary Trasviña with a book that included some of those stories, as well as the signatures of more than 14,000 MomsRising members on a letter thanking HUD for its efforts to end housing discrimination.
 
“I am proud of the HUD staff work that enforced Fair Housing Act protections for women and families whose access to mortgages was unfairly limited,” said Trasvina.
 
In presenting the book and Award, MomsRising Vice President Mary Olivella said, “we heard stories from families all across the country of being denied home loans or rental properties – not because they didn’t have good credit scores – but because a woman was pregnant or had children. HUD’s commitment to enforcing anti-discrimination laws and to investigating these practices gave these families and scores like them hope, not just for justice, but in some cases, to have a permanent roof over their heads.”
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.