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This month, the Coach takes a look at recent trends—and what they may mean for your fair housing program. The big news is a U.S. Supreme Court case on whether federal fair housing law imposes liability for discrimination based on disparate impact—that is, when a housing practice has a discriminatory effect on a protected class, even when there’s no intent to discriminate. A ruling in the case, expected later this year, has the potential to significantly change the legal landscape in fair housing law.

This month, the Coach focuses on the rules banning retaliation—a separate, and often overlooked, source of liability under fair housing law. Under the retaliation rules, it’s unlawful to “coerce, intimidate, threaten, or interfere with” anyone exercising a fair housing right or assisting others who exercise that right.

In this Special Issue, we’re going to wrap up 2014 with a summary of all the lessons covered over the year. Keep it handy—it’s a brief refresher on top fair housing concerns and a helpful index to the full lessons, all of which are available to subscribers to review on—or download from—FairHousingCoach.com. At the end of each summary, you’ll find a Quiz question—with a link to the Answer—so you can see how much you’ve learned.

In this month’s lesson, we’re going to look at how to provide maintenance services to residents at your community without violating fair housing law.

It’s important to maintain the property and respond to residents’ requests for maintenance or repairs, but you could get into fair housing trouble if you’re not careful. For instance, when you schedule repair work, you must treat residents fairly, based on objective reasons, such as the urgency of the repair, and not on discriminatory reasons, such as the resident’s race or religion.

In this month’s lesson, Fair Housing Coach spotlights fair housing problems that can arise when dealing with prospects. The majority of fair housing complaints occur during the apartment-seeking and rental-selection phase, says fair housing expert Shirley Robertson. And some have hit the news recently, with communities paying large settlements to resolve allegations that they turned away prospects for discriminatory reasons.

In this Special Issue, we’re tackling recordkeeping—a task that’s essential to protect your community from fair housing trouble.

Why is having the proper paperwork so important? Because it puts you in the best position to prevent fair housing violations—and to defend yourself if you ever face a discrimination complaint. Good recordkeeping helps your community to:

In this month’s lesson, the Coach reviews recent court rulings on fair housing law. In each case, we review the events leading up to the dispute and how it landed in court. Then, we explain the legal issues involved and what the court decided and why. Finally, we highlight the takeaway lessons that you can use to avoid similar fair housing problems at your community. At the end, you can take the Coach’s Quiz to see how much you’ve learned.

This month, Fair Housing Coach tackles one of the most difficult situations that every community must face: ending a resident’s tenancy. It may be at the end of the term, when not renewing a lease, or during the lease period, when initiating an eviction. Each circumstance is subject to different legal requirements, but in the end, they both involve the decision by the community—not the resident—to end the tenancy.

This month’s lesson highlights the top 10 things that you should know to prevent housing discrimination claims. Of course, fair housing law can get pretty complicated, but this lesson reviews the basics that everyone working at your community—regardless of his or her job—should understand about what’s okay—and not okay—to do or say when interacting with applicants, residents, and guests at the community.

In this Special Issue, we’re going to wrap up 2013 with a summary of all the lessons covered this year. Keep it handy—it’s a brief refresher on top fair housing concerns and a helpful index to the full lessons, all of which are available to read on—or download from—www.FairHousingCoach.com.