Organization Description:

Housing and Economic Rights Advocates (HERA) is a California statewide, not-for-profit legal service and advocacy organization. HERA's mission is to ensure that all people are protected from discrimination and economic abuses, especially in the realm of housing. We focus particularly on the needs of those who are most vulnerable, which includes lower-income people, the elderly, immigrants, people of color and people with disabilities. HERA's core practice areas are predatory or unfair mortgage lending, foreclosure prevention and fair housing. Our direct legal representation services are available primarily in Northern California, while our technical assistance, training and capacity building services are available statewide. HERA's activities to combat unfair lending, predatory lending and other abuses include: * providing consumer education, * providing legal services to individuals, * training legal professionals, community-based agencies, and governmental entities, * researching and documenting the scope and impact of housing discrimination and predatory lending practices, * organizing and capacity building of relevant entities in order to fight abuse of consumers, * pursuing policy and legislative redress, and * creating alternative consumer institutions.