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Firms that train staff to embrace diversity are more likely to be in tune with the principles of fair housing law.

“[XYZ Company] recognizes the principles of fair housing and diversity as core values.”

How many times have you seen phrases like that in a real estate company’s mission statement? It’s as if “fair housing” and “diversity” are mere synonyms of each other.

One reason that complying with fair housing laws is so challenging is that you can’t delegate your nondiscrimination duties the way you can with other legal obligations. Managing your own personal conduct isn’t enough; you’re also responsible for the third parties you hire to market, manage, police, landscape, repair, maintain, and perform other services for your housing community. This includes not only the employees you directly hire, train, and oversee but also the outside businesses you engage as contractors.

This month, the Coach’s lesson offers fair housing basic training for anyone newly hired to work at your community. It’s simple to say that fair housing law bans housing discrimination, but there are pitfalls that sometimes lead even seasoned professionals into fair housing trouble. This lesson reviews the basics so that everyone working at your community—regardless of his or her job—understands what’s okay—and not okay—to do or say when interacting with applicants, residents, and guests at your community.

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:

Part I: Recurring Violations of Long-Standing Rules

This month, we’re starting a two-part lesson on the deadly sins of fair housing law. Though the deadly sins are historically seven in number, we’ve added a few more to cover the most costly fair housing violations. And we’re breaking it down into two parts—deadly fair housing sins, old and new. This month, Part I of the lesson will cover old—that is, recurring violations of long-standing fair housing rules.

This month, we'll explain how to ensure compliance with fair housing laws when providing maintenance and repair services in multifamily housing communities.

This month, we are going to talk about how to beef up fair housing training—among the most important of the New Year's resolutions we recommended in the January 2011 issue. Though policies and procedures are essential to help ward off discrimination complaints, you must rely on your staff to apply the policies fairly and consistently to meet the challenges of complying with fair housing law.

New Year's is a time when many of us take a look back and resolve to make some changes in the upcoming year. The most popular resolutions involve personal goals such as losing weight, getting a better job, or reducing debt, according to the U.S. government. (Yes, the government has compiled a list of popular resolutions and resources on its Web site, www.USA.gov, to help people accomplish these goals).

This month marks the 42nd anniversary of the passage of the Fair Housing Act (FHA), the federal law that bars housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, and familial status.

In honor of Fair Housing Month, this month's issue will give you a chance to test your knowledge of fair housing law. The rules forbidding outright housing discrimination seem fairly straightforward, but simply telling your staff not to discriminate against prospects and residents is not enough to avoid fair housing trouble. The law also bans more subtle forms of discrimination, which may not seem to be overtly discriminatory, but have an unfair impact on some prospects or applicants with a protected characteristic.