Fair Housing

Why take the risk. Landlords, property owners, lending institutions, realtors, government agencies, non-profits organizations and anyone associated with housing can easily find themselves in violation of the fair housing laws. This is especially true in light of the recent changes promulgated by the federal government in the last few years. Findings of discrimination are resulting in some of the highest settlement costs in history. It is not uncommon to find settlements by the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the millions of dollars. In almost every case, compliant fair housing training, fair housing policies and obtaining the services of a qualified fair housing staff member or consultant would have relieved organizations of such debilitating expenses.

Many entitlement jurisdictions are not aware that when they submit an Annual Plan, CAPER, Demo/Dispo, Consolidated Plan, etc., to their respective HUD Program Office, HUD’s Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) experts are obligated to either recommend approval or disapprove of each document submitted for review. More often than not, the majority of these documents do not meet all of the fair housing program requirements, resulting in entitlement jurisdictions jeopardizing their funding and/or being subject to a FHEO compliance review.

DCC consultants can provide your organization services ranging from:

Don’t jeopardize your organization’s reputation, finances and/or CDBG funding: You must be familiar with the fair housing laws.  Failure to comply with these laws will subject your organization to large financial penalties, restrictions to federal funding, increased training requirements, public notification of your fair housing violations and rigorous inspections by fair housing officials.  The Housing and Urban Development, Department of Justice, civil rights judges, and local fair housing authorities have developed excellent partnerships to enforce the provisions of the fair housing laws.

The prevention of housing discrimination is a serious matter, DCC’s training and consulting options will greatly increase the probability of your organization being found compliant with your fair housing obligations. Our consultants have years of experience conducting fair housing activities, even serving as State Director of multiple states to enforce HUD’s Fair Housing Laws. This experience provides you, the client, a unique perspective of fair housing enforcement, obligations and consequences.

Due to the complexities associated with fair housing compliance, it is essential that organizational leaders seek out qualified professionals for advice and training to ensure that they are in compliance with the fair housing laws.  Finding a well-qualified Fair Housing Expert can be difficult; by choosing DCC you can trust that you have chosen the right expert. Our services are value added, resulting in a long-term and sustained return on your investment. Waiting to hire experts, such as DCC, can prove to be too costly for most organizations.