New York City Commission on Human Rights

THE NEIGHBORHOOD HUMAN RIGHTS PROGRAM
The Neighborhood Human Rights Program (NHRP) helps cultivate mutual understanding and respect among New York City’s many communities. The NHRP works on a grassroots level with block, tenant, merchant and civic groups to improve and stabilize their communities. The NHRP has field offices in Brooklyn, The Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. These field offices have borough wide responsibilities that include identifying areas at risk for intergroup tension and conflicts, supporting multi-ethnic coalitions and developing long-term programs on leadership, cultural diversity and ethnic sensitivity training. Major areas of focus include issues such as fair housing, equal treatment in employment and public accommodations, community development, equal access, and human dignity.	The Commission’s Neighborhood Human Rights Program conducts school workshops on conflict resolution and diversity training for students.
The NHRP conducts many educational and intervention programs that target specific issues or populations including:
Equal Access This program provides disability access assistance and education to senior citizens and the disabled community. Many of New York’s buildings, stores and other public accommodations are not accessible to people with disabilities. This program assists the disabled by identifying resources that are available, advocating on their behalf when dealing with landlords and/or service providers, and assisting them with legal actions if early intervention fails.	Mortgage Counseling and Predatory Loan Prevention This program helps reduce predatory lending practices and the discrimination associated with them by conducting seminars and individual counseling sessions to educate residents (particularly in lower-income communities) about these unethical and illegal practices. These lending practices include excessively high fees and commissions, misrepresentation of the mortgage’s terms and conditions, high interest rates, repeated financing of loans, balloon payments and the financing of high-cost credit insurance.
Immigrant Employment Rights Education The Commission on Human Rights and the New York Immigration Coalition are co-sponsors of the Immigration Employment Rights Project (IERP). IERP provides training for immigrant workers, employers and immigrant advocacy organizations to advise them of their rights and responsibilities under the Law. For example, it is illegal for employers, landlords, businesses or services to treat immigrants differently because they might “appear” or “sound” foreign or to reject proper work authorization and identity documents from immigrants. Additionally, most “citizen only” employment practices are illegal. The New York Immigration Coalition can be reached at (212) 627-2227.	Community Mediation and Conflict Resolution The Community Mediation and Conflict Resolution Center provides early intervention mediation services. The responsibility of the mediators, who are impartial and neutral, is to find a mutually acceptable way to prevent or resolve a dispute. Human Rights Specialists from the Commission’s Borough offices visit community events and meetings.