Issues & Publications
Programs & Initiatives
|
|
Guide to Developing Local Fair Housing Partnerships
Note: Please click on the blue arrow for the title of the section you wish to read:
 FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
The 1960s saw an end to legal segregation. People of all racial and ethnic groups are able to attend the same schools, drink from the same water fountains, and live in the same neighborhoods. However, the reality is that in many communities de facto racial segregation still exists. This is especially so in places where people live and work.
Any review of America’s metropolitan areas shows that African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans and other minorities tend to live outside predominantly white communities. The situation often reflects decisions made by individuals belonging to specific racial groups to live in non-racially-mixed communities. It can also reflect continuing discrimination in the nation’s housing markets.
If current demographic trends continue, the racial and ethnic mix of America is going to become even more diverse. The challenge ahead is to ensure that neighborhoods and communities reflect these trends, and that all people regardless of race or color, national orgin, gender, with our without disability and regardless of familial status, have freedom to choose the home and neighborhood of their choice. Fair Housing activities, whether through enforcement, education, voluntary programs or a combination of these, respond to a dream unrealized and the vision of a housing market free from discrimination.
HUD and NAR entered into their first Voluntary Affirmative Agreement in 1975, and after several revisions and renewals, the VAMA expired in December of 1996. The VAMA sought to encourage individual real estate firms to take appropriate steps to ensure that their agents followed the fair housing law. The VAMA also encouraged REALTORS® and real estate firms to support the “spirit of the fair housing law” through a variety of equal housing opportunity programs including outreach, advertising, equal employment practices, safeguards against racial steering and other steps, that helped housing to be marketed on an equal opportunity basis.
As successful and well intended as the VAMA was, it often placed process ahead of results and often worked against its objective of affirmatively furthering fair housing. The VAMA required endless reports and records on the status of member REALTOR® firms to a degree that left many important fair housing issues unaddressed.
The new HUD/NAR Fair Housing Partnership is results oriented and gives far less attention to process. The new Partnership focuses on the identification and eradication of housing discrimination in our communities. Because housing discrimination issues and priorities differ from community to community, the new national partnership is intentionally flexible and fluid. The HUD/NAR Partnership recognizes that fair housing is a collaborative endeavor requiring shared involvement by partners in activities such as training, self-testing, public education, affirmative marketing and the promotion of housing choice and opportunities across racial and ethnic lines.
The HUD/NAR Fair Housing Partnership is founded on the principle of providing support for and focusing attention on the implementation of local community initiatives. At the national level, HUD and NAR will regularly meet to identify national issues and concerns, develop joint strategies and actions to address housing discrimination, and review successes. In this ongoing fluid and flexible arrangement, the partnership’s determinations and actions on fair housing will likely change from year to year.
Because of the varying issues and differing circumstances in local communities, no specific model for a local partnership was developed by HUD and NAR. NAR, local associations and HUD field offices are encouraged to develop local fair housing partnerships based on the following principles of the national partnership:
 Sharing responsibility for the achievement of fair housing,
Identifying fair housing issues and concerns,
Developing measurable strategies and actions to address identified issues and concerns,
Evaluating the success of actions taken, and
Determining future strategies and actions based on that evaluation.
This Fair Housing Partnership Guide, while based on the national partnership principles, offers alternative suggestions for developing and implementing partnerships. The Guide also provides helpful advice to those parties interested in ratifying or participating in an existing partnership. |
WHY A PARTNERSHIP
Developing a Local Fair Housing Partnership
Step 1 Preparing for Partnership
Step 2 Initiating Partnership and
Step 3: Reaching An Agreement
Identify and review the shared goals of the various partners and begin to discuss reasons why those goals have or have not been met. Having common goals and a shared understanding of why those goals have not been met, is necessary to the development of successful fair housing strategies and actions. Communities which have completed an Analysis of Impediments (AI) to Fair Housing Choice as part of their fair housing planning process, may already have some information that can help the various parties to the fair housing partnership. An AI is simply a blueprint for identifying housing and lending barriers that a community has determined it should address. HUD’s Fair Housing Planning Guide gives some tips on the analysis of impediments.
It is not necessary that local partners adopt the national Partnership Resolution. The vision is that local partners will develop their own partnership arrangements and determine how best to formalize their local efforts. The value of a local partnership rests in tailoring strategies and actions to address local concerns. The structure of your relationship depends on who is involved and whether the emphasis will be on one or a limited number of “projects” or a more comprehensive set of strategies. In addition, many existing partnership efforts embody the spirit of the national partnership and should continue. There is no need to replace something that is working.
The new partnership differs from that of the VAMA, because there is no intention for the partners to monitor the state or local Association’s activities or those of its member firms. The Fair Housing Act and the REALTOR® Code of Ethics provide clear mechanisms to address housing discrimination allegations against individual real estate agents and firms. The focus of the new partnership is aimed at joint or shared actions, and the partnership as a whole is accountable for the success of its own actions and strategies.
There should be agreement on how the partners will determine issues and concerns, develop strategies and actions, and measure the success of those strategies and actions. These discussions can lead to a more formalized ongoing relationship among partners or an agreement that they will meet periodically to plan and evaluate the local partnership.
In addition to the NAR/HUD National Fair Housing Partnership Model, there are many other ways to implement similar partnerships at the local level:
Partnership Models
Single Issue Coalition - A local partnership might form around a single fair housing related issue or campaign. Fair Housing Month is an example of an activity designed to promote fair housing and educate the public on fair housing issues. Coalitions between Associations of REALTORS® and community based organizations have addressed issues such as the relationship between school quality and neighborhood choice, residential segregation, and continuing education requirements.
Fair Housing Advisory Boards - Some fair housing agencies have established community advisory boards that involve local government and housing industry representatives in discussions regarding their work. These discussions can lead to agreement on shared actions to address local fair housing needs.
Fair Housing Planning - A number of communities have developed fair housing plans to address local impediments to fair housing choice. Some communities have endeavored to involve a cross section of the housing community in their planning efforts. Continuing these efforts can serve to achieve the purposes of the Fair Housing Partnership.
Home Ownership Efforts - The National Partners in Homeownership is a coalition of over 60 national organizations working to increase homeownership levels across the nation. These national efforts incorporate a commitment to opening markets to remove discriminatory barriers to homeownership. The National Partners in Homeownership strategies strongly encourage the development of local home ownership efforts. Working with these local homeownership efforts and promoting fair housing as a major activity of local partnership goes a long way toward integrating fair housing into the community. Local affiliates of the National Partners in Homeownership are natural allies and supporters of the National Fair Housing Partnership. |
Step 4 Identifying Issues, Planning Actions and Evaluating Success
Using the Realtor® Fair Housing Declaration
CONCLUSION
Appendix B
|
|
