The DC Office of Human Rights, the DC Department of Housing and Community Development and the Equal Rights Center will host the District’s annual fair housing symposium on April 19, 2012. This year’s event will include several exciting panel discussions on fair housing issues and two fair housing training sessions, one for housing industry professionals and one for the general public.
The first panel, “Discussion of Impediments”, will address fair housing barriers as discussed in the District’s soon to be released Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice, a recurring five-year analysis. Discussions will focus on the AI’s findings, the identified impediments, previous findings and its recommendations.
The second panel, titled “New Movements”, will address issues affecting the disability rights movement and its efforts to integrate the disability community into mainstream housing through fair housing accessibility requirements. The panel will discuss new Department of Justice regulations to the ADA/ABA guidelines, UFAS regulations affecting housing construction, the definition and interpretation of assistance and service animals, and pending accessibility legislation in the District.
The last panel discussion, “Expanding Equality”, will focus in part on the equal housing opportunity concerns of the Lesbian Gay Bi-sexual and Transgender (LGBT) community and the recently published landmark LGBT anti-discrimination rule in HUD programs- Equal Access to Housing in HUD Programs – Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity will be discussed. There will be a discussion of HUD’s first ever nationwide same-sex couples testing project as well as housing discrimination issues faced by the transgender community and the LGBT senior community in the District.
Two fair housing training sessions will also be presented: the first is a basic fair housing session entitled “Your Housing, Your Choice”; the second training is for housing industry professionals and will cover the fair housing responsibilities of property managers and other individuals in the industry.
Representatives from the District government, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Justice, elected officials and fair housing advocates will be present.
The event will be from 9 am to 4 pm at the True Reformer Building located at 1200 U Street, NW. Please register by clicking here.