Forty-seven years ago this week, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act (Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968) establishing equal access to housing in the United States. Since that landmark legislation, we have seen continued progress in the area of Fair Housing. In the last few years, for example, HUD issued a Final Rule on Discriminatory Effects that created a consistent standard for determining whether a practice has a discriminatory effect that violates the Fair Housing Act. HUD also updated the definition of family used in our housing programs to provide protection to persons regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.
Despite the progress we’ve made, there is no shortage of Fair Housing complaints filed. In 2013, HUD, the DOJ, state and local governments, and civil rights and fair housing organizations handled over 27,000 complaints.
This summer NCHM will debut its latest certification course, Fair Housing Specialist (FHS). This course is designed to not only teach all the applicable regulations and requirements, but also the practical details of Fair Housing compliance. We will cover topics such as systemic and unintentional discrimination and look at “problem” policies and procedures and discuss needed changes.
FHS will be taught online over the course of one month. Students will “attend” class approximately four hours a week over the first three weeks of the calendar month. Homework will be assigned each week. During the fourth week, the online certification exam will be available.
Currently we teach COS Advanced in this same format and it is well received. By spreading the course out over a calendar month, we are able to teach in shorter blocks of time giving students the opportunity to read and digest the material before moving on to a new topic. We encourage interactive dialogue during both the actual sessions and in between sessions through the use of an online forum. In addition, you do not need to be out of the office for 3-4 straight days and there are no travel expenses!
I hope you will consider joining me for this new class when it debuts later this summer.