Pub. 5 2020 Issue 1

9 ISSUE 1 2020 exposing the attempts to roll back exist- ing Fair Housing protections and tracked complaints, hate crime o enses and case law a ecting Fair Housing policies: e number of housing discrimination complaints led in 2018 increased an alarming 8% over the previous year’s number of complaints and at 31,202 is the highest number recorded since 1995, the year recording began. Private Fair Housing groups processed 75% more complaints than ALL of the government agencies combined. Reported hate crime o enses increased by 15% over the previous year’s record- ed o enses. e Trump administration attacked Fair Housing to try and “chill” civil rights enforcement by suspension of the 2015 AFFH (A rmatively Furthering Fair Housing) and by altering the use of a key standard of proof known as “dispa- rate impact." e proposed rule would make it almost impossible to bring disparate impact claims that would al- low the housing industry to use policies and practices that in e ect discriminate against entire classes of people. In 2018, 391 of the 897 harassment complaints were on the basis of dis- ability, 149 based on race, 139 were based on sex. Important cases were settled with FaceBook and CoreLogic resulting in FaceBook ‘s creation of a separate advertising portal for housing, employ- ment and credit advertising and for credit check companies to reassess their algorithms when determining housing recommendations. e report also includes more in-depth reporting on: Overview of 2018 housing complaints; Assaults on the Fair Housing Act; Important case highlights for 2018-2019; Fair Housing challenges faced in 2018. Following is a summary of the NFHA industry recommendations: HUD should reinstate and implement the AFFH rule; HUD should reinstate the 2013 Dispa- rate Impact rule; Steps should be taken to address State preemption of Fair Housing laws; Fair Housing should be applied to tech- nology with housing-related functions; Congress should pass the Equality Act and Fair Housing Improvement Act of 2019; e Nation must address the increase in hate activity. A discrimination lawsuit can end up costing you and your company valu- able time and money. You may greatly reduce the risks by providing your employees and vendors with Fair Hous- ing training. For access to the entire NFHA report which outlines some of the huge monetary award settlements, go to nationalfairhousing.org/wp-con- tent/uploads/2019/10/2019-Trends-Re- port.pdf. Don’t let the large settlement awards scare you. For less than $50, you can arm yourself with education. Sign up your employees and vendors for one of the 1.5 hour live webinars on “Taking The Fear Out of Fair Hous- ing” offered by Occupancy Solutions’ founder Elaine Simpson. To register, click on one of the 2020 webinars listed below: January 15, 2020 at 10:30 am est https://zoom.us/webinar/register/ WN_fTEzFsomRrmHmZbDrXa6-g Feb 15, 2020 at 10:30 am est https:// zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_skr_ tRJYT2GiDeVAsS_iqQ March 10, 2020 at 1:30 est https:// zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kI- T1AexJQaO_NoVY8DzDNw The staff of the NFHA expressed concerns that the Fair Housing Act is “under attack” from the very agency charged with enforcing it — HUD