The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded over $38 million to over 100 groups nationwide in order to help them fight housing discrimination.

The awards, which have been given out as part of HUD’s Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP), are intended to help support a wide variety of fair housing enforcement efforts, and extend to areas such as public education and fair housing testing.

In an official statement, HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Gustavo Velasquez spoke of his department’s need for public support, saying, “Combating housing discrimination requires the aggressive enforcement of the nation’s fair housing laws, but HUD can’t do it alone."

Velasquez added that the grants “will enable organizations committed to justice and equality to support our efforts to ensure that everyone has equal access to available housing opportunities.”

The three categories of grant awards were: Private Enforcement Initiative grants, Education and Outreach Initiative grants, and Fair Housing Organizations Initiative grants.

Groups in New York and California received the most awards.

Although housing discrimination typically brings to mind situations involving race or income, 2016 Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders recently called attention to the housing obstacles that stand before many in the LGBT as well. The New York Sun Times reports that on Sept. 28 Sanders tweeted, “In many states, it is legal to deny someone housing for being transgender. That is wrong and must end.”

HUD has made a point of specifying that The Fair Housing Act does not specifically include sexual orientation and gender identity as prohibited bases, but qualifies that “a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) person's experience with sexual orientation or gender identity housing discrimination may still be covered by the Fair Housing Act.”