Fair Housing Update: July 2004

WA State FAIR HOUSING UPDATE: July 2004

WASHINGTON STATE AGENCIES
WIN NATIONAL AWARDS
By Dixie Shaw, Fair Housing Center of South Puget Sound and
Roxanne Vierra, King County Office of Civil Rights

On June 16, 2004, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) held its Fair Housing Awards Dinner at the National Fair Housing Training Conference and Housing Policy Summit in Washington D.C. Two Washington state fair housing agencies were the recipients of national awards recognizing the agencies achievements in fair housing work--the King County Office of Civil Rights and the Fair Housing Center of South Puget Sound.

Innovation Award Presented to Fair Housing Center of South Puget Sound

The Fair Housing Center of South Puget Sound received one of four national HUD awards for Fair Housing Initiative Programs (FHIP). The FHIP Innovation Award was given to the Fair Housing Center for exhibiting creativity and unique versatility in addressing programs or in developing testing or research projects. To receive this award, an agency's program or research must be able to be duplicated in other areas through a clear methodology, tool, program project or model. The Fair Housing Center developed and successfully implemented an award winning fair housing English as a Second Language (ESL) "Fair Housing: Understanding Your Rights"© curriculum in ESL classrooms throughout the state. Utilizing HUD FHIP funding, and partnering with a local technical college, the curriculum was developed to educate immigrants on identifying housing discrimination and understanding fair housing laws and enforcement options.

The Fair Housing Center has worked with numerous ESL instructors throughout Washington State to utilize the fair housing ESL curriculum and it has been well received by instructors and students alike. Its use has increased immigrant complaint calls to the agency, an increase not previously realized by traditional education and outreach programs. Because of the curriculum's success, it is now being expanded for use in Oregon and Idaho. For more information related to the "Fair Housing: Understanding Your Rights"© ESL curriculum or other agency programs, please contact Dixie Shaw at 253-274-9523 or toll free at 888-766-8800.

King County Office of Civil Rights Wins Partnership Award

The King County Office of Civil Rights has taken the leadership role in a unique and highly successful partnership of the four Washington State Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP) agencies and the two FHIP agencies. The Partnership Award is given to an agency that demonstrates an effective use of partnerships among government agencies, nonprofit organizations, or private business, including the facilitation of information sharing. What distinguishes this partnership from other agencies in the country are the many other collaborative efforts of the Washington agencies.

King County Office of Civil Rights has coordinated a quarterly meeting of all of the Washington FHAPs and FHIPs, with rotating hosts, where the agencies plan joint activities and discuss matters of mutual concern. Activities in which all of the organizations have participated in the last year as partners are:

Delivery of quarterly training sessions for housing providers and respondents to discrimination complaints, with critiques by professional trainers;
Publication of a quarterly newsletter sent to housing providers and advocacy organizations throughout the state;
Development of a sample policy on disability accommodations;
Development of a "100 Questions for Property Managers and Landlords" guidebook on rights and responsibilities under the fair housing laws;
Formation of a Partnership TRO project, which allowed for all TRO requests to be sent to one designated staff person and agency collaboration;
Participation in the annual property management "TRENDS" conference typically attended by more than 1700 property management staff and most recently in a similar trade show for the real estate industry.

For more information related to the workshop programs and training materials mentioned here, please contact Roxanne Vierra at 206-296-7705 or e-mail to roxanne.vierra@metrokc.gov.

Return to Fair Housing Update newsletter | Upcoming Events
KCOCR Fair Housing Home Page
Your comments about this web site

Updated: July 19, 2004

Links to external sites do not constitute endorsements by King County.
By visiting this and other King County web pages,
you expressly agree to be bound by terms and conditions of the site.
The details.