What you will learn in this article:
- Fair Housing Testers – The Facts
- Comparable Category
- Non-Comparable Category
- How Fair Housing Testing Evidence Is Used
- HUD Requirements
- Respondents – What Do You Get
- The Big Picture
Fair Housing Training For Maintenance – A Prerequisite
Fair Housing training for maintenance professionals is a compliance prerequisite. Housing providers sometimes overlook this need. Often they are the first team members who arrive after a maintenance call comes in. They interact with residents on a regular basis. Kindness and courtesy can often be misinterpreted. We want kindness and courtesy to always be maintained. Scenario-based Fair Housing training goes a long way to create a good balance. [Read more…]
Fair Housing Advertising – Guidelines To Compliance
Fair Housing advertising issues and violations are more common than you may think. HUD provides advertising guidelines for compliance which this article covers.
In case you’re asking yourself why you should read this particular article, the fact is that if you work in the housing industry, you need to know your responsibilities under the Fair Housing Act, because regardless of your position, you are probably “advertising” every day. Fair Housing advertising involves every member of your team. [Read more…]
Fair Housing & Personal Security – What Is Most Important?
Fair Housing Or Personal Security?
An employee’s safety and personal security usually should take precedence over fair housing concerns.
Working in the field of residential real estate can be very rewarding. Whether you’re involved in sales, leasing, or maintenance, you can also face risks. We’ve all heard the frightening stories of on-site employees or real estate agents who have been attacked while doing their jobs. Good personal security practices can greatly reduce the risk of such incidents. But what happens when your personal security practices force you to treat people differently so that you’re concerned about your fair housing compliance? [Read more…]
Disparate Impact Clarification – A Call To HUD
Disparate Impact Clarification
Keeping up with Fair Housing laws can be a full time job. Laws are added, changed, and tweaked regularly. Recently, the American Bankers Association (ABA) and state bankers associations in all 50 states responded to HUD’s request for suggestions of outdated regulations by calling for clarification of the disparate impact rule. Here is an excerpt from the article in the ABA Banking Journal that recently was published that highlights this disparate impact clarification: [Read more…]
Educate Maintenance Staff About Reasonable Modification Requests
Apartment maintenance staff may receive reasonable modification requests because of their direct contact with residents. Therefore, it’s important that they are educated in how to respond to such requests.
Fair Housing Compliance – What Qualifies As A Senior Living Community?
What qualifies as a senior living community? An increasing number of housing developments appear to be marketing themselves as “Active Adult” or “Empty Nester” communities. How can that be? “Adult Only” housing was outlawed in 1988 when President Ronald Reagan signed the Fair Housing Amendments Act (FHAA) into law.
[Read more…]Answer Your Telephone With Care – Comply With Fair Housing
I Thought You Had A Two Bedroom?
Telephone fair housing training is a key component for the compliance department in multifamily. Apartment rental offices receive many telephone calls each day. Questions such as: Are there available apartments? What is your screening criteria? and many others may be asked on any given day. How an employee answers can cause the caller to have expectations of an apartment community. These expectations may or may not be realized when that person visits or makes application. Any contradictions in information may be assumed to be a result of housing discrimination. For example, one of the most common issues occurs when a tester calls and is told there are available two bedroom apartments. When the tester arrives at the apartment community the next day, he is told there are no available apartments.
[Read more…]Fair Housing – There is More Than One Protected Class
Traditionally over the last few years we have seen and or experienced Fair Housing testers coming to properties to ascertain that our site teams are abiding by Fair Housing laws. Most of the tests have been focused on two particular classes which are race and religion. They are always stepping up their game.