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Washington State FAIR HOUSING UPDATE |
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FAIR HOUSING ACT It took three contentious legislative sessions - 2003, 2005, 2007 and a special session in 2008 - for Oregon's Fair Housing Laws to be deemed substantially equivalent by HUD. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) signed an interim certification agreement in April, and began processing cases in May. To date, we have received 18 cases. In 1982, the State of Oregon BOLI began performing fair housing investigations through HUD's Fair Housing Assistance Program. When the federal Fair Housing Act was amended in 1988, Oregon's statutes were no longer substantially equivalent. Three years later, Oregon lost its FHAP status along with it its HUD contract. In 2003 and 2005, great efforts were made to bring back substantial equivalency to BOLI without success. Finally, in the 2007 legislative session State Senator Margaret Carter sponsored Senate Bill 725, which made major strides in bringing Oregon into compliance with HUD as a substantially equivalent. The legislation passed the state House and Senate by wide margins and was signed into law by Governor Ted Kulongoski last summer. In January 2008, Oregon's Labor Commissioner met with the Assistant Secretary of HUD. During that meeting, a plan of action was agreed upon to make technical fixes to the Oregon Revised Statues and Administrative Rules that were passed in 2007. HUD representatives explained that these amendments needed to pass through the Oregon Legislature before substantial equivalency was granted to the State of Oregon. In 2008 during a special session, the technical fixes were adopted by the Oregon Legislature and incorporated into law. The final certification paperwork was signed by HUD and the Bureau of Labor and Industries, of State of Oregon on April 4, 2008, and the Agency received its fully executed Interim Certification Agreement at HUD's 2008 National Policy Conference. As the newest FHAP in the Northwest, we consider this an honor and an exciting time for the Bureau of Labor and Industries. We look forward to working with our fair housing partners in the Northwest. BOLI can be reached via e-mail at BOLI.MAIL@state.or.us, by phone at 971-673-0761 , or visit our web site at www.boli.state.or.us/BOLI/CRD/C_Crfacdis.shtml. OCR Fair Housing Home Page | Comments Updated: July 1, 2009 King County | DES | OCR | News | Services | Search Links to external sites do not constitute
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