6/8/08, Sunday
4:45pm – Cat Cloud of NFHA introduced a short video on the Chicago Freedom Movement from WTTW that features HOPE Fair Housing executive director, resident fair housing photographer, and friend of MoveSmart.org Bernie Kleina. Bernie’s photos are an amazing snapshot of when violent street confrontations over what was then termed ‘open housing’ occurred in multiple neighborhoods around Chicago. We were privileged to auction off a number of these photos at our Integration 2.0 event in January – not surprisingly they garnered the highest bids of the more than twenty items at the event. They will be on display and are the centerpiece of this evening’s conference reception.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Chicago Freedom Movement, check out the great online archive hosted by CURL at Loyola University and two fantastic documentaries by Seth McClellan - “The New Battle” and “King in Chicago”.

4:38pm – Bob just noted, “It’s almost like you have to have jerky defendants” to get a substantive monetary award in a fair housing case. Best line yet.

4:10pm – Disability has become the most frequently cited protected class in fair housing discrimination complaints to HUD and their delegate agencies – 43% of all complaints filed. Many of these cases involve requests for reasonable accommodations and modifications, which can be heart-wrenching. Matt Dietz, a private fair housing attorney, spoke briefly on Davis v. Lane Management, a case in which a disabled man who required a wheelchair to get around and lived on the second floor had to crawl up and down stairs when his management company refused to fix the broken elevator, despite the fact that they had the money to make the repairs. The facts of the case are disturbing – the plaintiff needed two sets of wheelchairs and would get down the steps only to be covered in muck and dirt at the start of the day. Mr. Davis had requested a first floor apartment or that the elevator be repaired, but each on the first floor had a step to get into the apartment and would still be inaccessible to a wheelchair. The plaintiff was awarded $840,000 in damages, $420k in compensatory and $420k in punitive, although the defendants are claiming there is no money to satisfy the judgment.

3:52pm – Reminding us that not just whites discriminate based on race, color, or national origin, Bob (we’ve lost John – his presence is required at an ongoing fair housing case in Ohio) highlights HUD v. Fung, a case in which an Asian landlord refused to allow his Asian American tenant to sublet out her apartment to an African American woman. Bob has a great article on why rental discrimination persists despite more than 40 years of fair housing laws.

3:30pm – Bob is discussing the fascinating case that combines a Civil War-era statute and the Fair Housing Act: U.S. ex rel. Anti-Discrimination Center (ADC) of New York, Inc. v. Westchester County. In this case, the ADC is using the False Claims Act to allege that Westchester County falsely certified to HUD that it was affirmatively furthering fair housing – a requirement of the FHA – in its administration and disbursement of their Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. ADC has survived a motion to dismiss and fair housing advocates around the country are closely following the progress of this case as it represents a new and potentially powerful tactic to ensure that federal funds are used to promote integration.

2:30pm – Each year one of the highlights of the National Fair Housing Alliance conference is the “Annual Update – Key Fair Housing Cases” session, affectionately referred to as the “John and Bob Show”. John Relman of Relman and Dane and Bob Schwemm of the University of Kentucky update the fair housing world on the significant cases that happened during the past year, inviting lawyers and advocates in attendance to comment on their work and adding in a heavy dose of humor and sarcasm. As usual, the news is a mix of good and bad – the Halperin ruling continues to haunt us, the news on Internet advertising is mixed but mostly bad, the news on standing is good (for now), and there’s a great deal of exciting work happening in the mortgage lending field.