The Fair Housing Institute, Inc.
We provide comprehensive fair housing online training to protect you, your property and your company.
Proper documentation can help you defend against an allegation of housing discrimination. It’s pretty safe to say that all property management companies would like to avoid a lawsuit for a Fair Housing violation if at all possible.
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When was the last time you reviewed your screening policies? Prevent illegal discrimination in screening applicants by developing and practicing consistent policies. Terrorism concerns are relevant and need to be addressed in a proactive way and not reactive. Your team needs to be properly trained on Fair Housing compliance and also on how to properly apply any procedures and policies that you may implement. [Read more…]
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…]
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…]
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Bankers Association (ABA) and state bankers associations in all 50 states responded to HUD’s request for suggestions of outdated regulations by calling for clarification of the disparate impact rule.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…]
Apartment maintenance staff may receive reasonable modification requests because of their direct contact with residents. Therefore, it’s important that they are educated on how to respond to such requests.
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.
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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.
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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.
