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This month, Fair Housing Coach highlights how to comply with fair housing requirements while protecting the safety and security of your community.

To cut the risk of crime, safety experts offer a variety of tips, many of which are aimed at keeping criminals from moving into the community. For example, the experts advise communities to fully screen their applicants, but you could be vulnerable to a fair housing complaint unless you apply the policy consistently to all applicants.

This month's issue of Fair Housing Coach focuses on avoiding discrimination claims based on sexual orientation. Federal fair housing law does not ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, but many fair housing experts believe that the federal law may be amended to include sexual orientation in coming years.

Meanwhile, many communities are subject to state, county, and municipal laws protecting sexual orientation. And many more may be covered this year as state and local lawmakers around the country weigh measures to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.

This month's issue focuses on the rules that senior communities must follow to qualify as housing for “older persons” under federal fair housing law. Senior communities that comply with strict technical requirements are exempt from the general rules that protect families with children. It's essential for senior communities to understand and comply with the rules to preserve their ability to exclude or otherwise treat families with children differently than they treat other applicants.

In this special issue of Fair Housing Coach, we'll update you on some recent court developments on the Fair Housing Act (FHA). In recent months, courts have handed down decisions on local immigration measures and the FHA design and construction standards—topics we covered in Fair Housing Coach earlier this year—and on discriminatory advertising on the Internet, a topic we last covered in 2006.

This month, we are going to tackle a sensitive subject: sexual harassment. If your community doesn't already have written policies and procedures to deal with sexual harassment, you may wonder why you need them. Perhaps you believe it could never happen in your community, and that by raising the issue, you'll only encourage residents or applicants to file questionable complaints.

In this special issue of Fair Housing Coach, we look at some recent cases decided by federal and state courts on fair housing law. Keeping abreast of what's happening in the courts can help you learn from the experiences of other communities to better prevent—or respond to—fair housing complaints.

This month, we'll discuss how to enter residents' apartments without violating fair housing law. There are many reasons why you and other staff members might need to enter a resident's apartment. You might need to perform routine maintenance, such as changing air-conditioning filters or spraying for bugs; inspect the apartment; make repairs; or show the apartment to a prospective new tenant.