Helping you Honor Fair Housing Month

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Today is the start of Fair Housing Month.  This April, we have planned a four level strategy to help all of our members understand and embrace fair housing laws and be open to a greater awareness of bias.  Please join us….

  1. FIELD GUIDE:  Taking questions we received from many of our members about issues experienced in the field by members who were striving to DO THE RIGHT THING, we created a Fair Housing Field Guide for offices and agents to use to discuss, debate and better understand the nuances of bias. It also has office meeting discussions that can help your navigate common buyer and seller questions without ever violating fair housing laws or equal access for all!  A hard copy has just been mailed to all DR’s in the board, and this PDF is made available to all agents.
  2. AN EYEOPENER: We are offering an AMAZING OPPORTUNITY for you to attend a Lessons Learned from Long Island Divided webinar, moderated by Sandy Carroll with Bill Dedman, the lead investigator who organized undercover testing of Realtors for 2 years in Long Island, recording many, many fair housing violations in the process. 2 CE credits too!
  3. PUBLIC ACKNOWEDLGEMENT:  Our Government Affairs Town Monitors have been asked to send to their town a Fair Housing Proclamation so that all of our communities can acknowledge and declare April Fair Housing Month and share our efforts to eradicate all forms of discrimination in housing.  (below is a copy you can send – PLEASE email Sandy@Berkshirerealtors.org with the name of the city/town that you have sent this to and the date.  We would like to track who passes this proclamation).
  4. RECOGNITION: We will finalize all graphics to promote the 213 Berkshire members who have completed their Fairhaven.Realtor fair housing simulation. (Plus, we have 18 members who are almost done!) Please email Sandy@Berkshirerealtors.org with your headshot if you haven’t already or if you take the program after today.) It takes between 60-100 minutes to complete, let’s get it done!

You know what blatant discrimination looks like, but it’s unexamined situations in the field that can lead to unintentional bias and discrimination. These are real-life questions REALTORS® have asked, with answers to help make sure you are promoting diversity and inclusion at every turn.  Fair housing means fair for all!

Subject: Fair Housing Month Proclamation Request

Dear Mayors/Councilors/Selectmen:

As a resident of (name of city/town) and a REALTOR®, I am writing to respectfully request that you consider declaring April Fair Housing Month in our community by issuing a proclamation (suggested language attached). April 11 will mark the 54th anniversary of passage of the federal Fair Housing Act, prohibiting several forms of discrimination in housing. By issuing the attached proclamation, you would declare that our community is dedicated to fair housing for all residents.

REALTORS® are committed to advancing fair housing and increasing housing supply to meet the needs of people across stages of life, supporting policies that advance the dream of home ownership for all. I appreciate the work that you are doing to serve our community, and your consideration of this request. If I may be of any assistance to you, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Respectfully yours,