First Friday Webinar - Affirmatively Furthering the Purpose and Policies of the Fair Housing Act

Description

This webinar will cover two exciting developments that preserve and enhance tools used by legal aid fair housing advocates: the recent Inclusive Communities decision; and, final rules released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on July 16, 2015.

Jean Zachariasiewicz, currently an associate with Relman, Dane & Colfax, a national civil rights law firm, will discuss the United States Supreme Court’s June 25, 2015 decision in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. In the Court’s majority opinion, Justice Kennedy acknowledged that the disparate-impact standard has worked to combat systemic discrimination. Jean will also discuss whether the opinion limits the use of disparate impact theory as some commentators suggest.

The second fair housing topic is HUD’s final rule on affirmatively furthering fair housing (AFFH). The rule clarifies and simplifies longstanding fair housing obligations requiring HUD grantees to analyze their fair housing landscape and set locally-determined fair housing priorities and goals through an Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH). For more than forty years, HUD funding recipients have been obligated by law to reduce barriers to fair housing. The final rule aims to provide all HUD grantees, which include many communities and public housing agencies, with clear guidelines and the data that will help them to achieve those goals. To aid communities in this work, HUD will provide open data to grantees and the public on patterns of integration and segregation, racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty, disproportionate housing needs, and disparities in access to opportunity.

Jean will pull all of this information together by discussing how disparate impact theory and the duty to affirmatively further fair housing intersect.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.