Fair Housing Training

Since 2021, non-profit fair housing agencies, state and local government agencies, and federal agencies have received more than 30,000 fair housing complaints each year. And those are only the reported incidents of fair housing discrimination—the actual number is certainly much higher. The federal Fair Housing Act covers many types of discrimination and many protected classes, from the most basic refusal to rent because of race to more complex areas such as sexual harassment and familial status discrimination. The only responsible way to protect your business and the rights of your residents is to ensure you and your employees are properly and comprehensively trained by someone experienced in fair housing law. The benefits of training include:

• Understanding who must follow federal fair housing laws* and whom they apply to.
• Ensuring you and your employees understand federal law and how it may differ from your state or local law so you can comply with all your obligations.
• Emphasizing to your employees, from the manager to the maintenance personnel, the importance of consistently applying policies and procedures so every resident is treated equally.
• Ensuring your employees understand how to process reasonable accommodation and reasonable modification requests and address them fairly.
• Protecting your business in the event an employee goes off-script.

Training isn’t just for housing providers, either. Fair housing issues can arise for government entities, housing developers and architects (click here for more info), real estate agents, and more.

Now that you understand why training is essential, you want to be sure you’re choosing a trainer who truly knows the law. Having spent 20 years litigating all types of fair housing cases, I have experience in the numerous ways that fair housing issues arise and how to address them.

*For clients in Washington State, training will include both state and federal law.