Fair Housing Luncheon Provides Refresher About Ensuring Equal Treatment To All

Housing discrimination has a long history, said Sara K. Pratt, deputy assistant secretary for enforcement and programs at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO), at the April 15 Fair Housing Training and Luncheon. From Jim Crow laws in the South, allowing for “separate but equal accommodations,” to sundown towns, restrictive covenants, and redlining, there have been institutional racism and segregation as well as individual discrimination in housing, she said.

Pratt was this year’s keynote speaker at the annual Fairfax County Office of Human Rights and Equity Programs event at the Waterford in Fairfax. More than 200 people attended.

The Northern Virginia Association of Realtors® co-sponsored the annual program, which includes award presentations to Fairfax County Public School winners of the Fair Housing Literary and Art contest. The prizes are provided by NVAR.

As a senior leader at HUD, Pratt participates in initiatives relating to discrimination in housing and lending, including enforcement of the Fair Housing Act and other civil rights laws. Her HUD programs, she explained, provide municipalities with guidance about “affirmatively furthering fair housing and how to eliminate barriers that prohibit affordable housing from going on.”

“We, at NVAR, always support and enforce equal opportunity. It is the only right way to do business.”

Also a Fair Housing luncheon presenter, NVAR Chair Mary Bayat explained that Realtors® are mandated to abide by the National Association’s Code of Ethics. “NAR opposes discrimination in housing based on race color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity and national origin,” she said. “We, at NVAR, always support and enforce equal opportunity. It is the only right way to do business.”

The Fair Housing Act (Title VIII of Civil Rights Act of 1968) outlawed discrimination in home sales, rentals, insurance and mortgage lending based on someone’s protected class status of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, family status, or disability. Additional protected classes have been added.

Learn more at http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/ohrep/hrd/

Jill Parker Landsman is NVAR’s vice president, communications & media relations.