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The DOJ recently issued a warning that municipal “crime-free” rental housing and “nuisance” property ordinances may run afoul of the Fair Housing Act. We explain what that means for landlords and give you a strategy of what to do if you actually face the dilemma of having to violate federal law to comply with local law.
Amid the coronavirus crisis and the gridlock in Washington, it’s hard to predict where we’re headed in this election year. Given the uncertainty about what’s going to happen on the national level, it seems like a good time to look at some recent major developments in fair housing law on the state and local level.
In this lesson, the Coach spotlights recent news of settlements reached in fair housing cases. The amounts reportedly paid are sometimes staggering—which is news in and of itself—and show just how much it can cost to resolve fair housing complaints. But the real news is in the backstory, the events that led to a complaint against the community. It’s there that you can learn what, if anything, the community could have done to avoid the problem in the first place, or once the problem arose, to prevent it from escalating into a formal fair housing complaint.
The Coach wraps up 2015 with a review of all the lessons covered this year. Keep it handy—it’s a quick refresher on top fair housing concerns and a helpful index to the full lessons, all of which are available to review online or download from FairHousingCoach.com. And you’ll also find quiz questions—with links to the answers—so you can see how much you’ve learned.
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.
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 honor of Fair Housing Month, this month’s issue takes a break from our usual lesson to test your knowledge of fair housing law.
Recent trends suggest an upswing in fair housing enforcement efforts. With funding awarded last year, advocacy groups across the country are in the midst of conducting fair housing tests to detect unlawful housing discrimination. And the scope of testing has expanded well beyond traditional site visits and telephone tests to include email and online advertising.
In honor of Fair Housing Month, we're going to tackle some of the frequently asked questions (FAQs) about fair housing that come up in conventional multifamily housing communities.
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