As the entire federal bureaucracy begins to use new media and share data under the direction of the White House's new Open Government Initiative, the National Fair Housing Alliance, MoveSmart.org, and the Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance urge HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) to utilize media and technology more effectively.

Housing discrimination practices have evolved as technology has evolved.  By way of example, real estate agents and landlords use the internet to advertise available housing and often include discriminatory terms that illegally make this housing unavailable to members of the protected classes.  The federal government and civil rights advocates must respond by also using technology to identify these practices in order to open these closed doors.  The web offers many tools to help eradicate the more than estimated 4 million annual incidents of housing discrimination and as important, offers tools that can be used to effectively promote healthy diverse neighborhoods.

While the White House is taking the lead on data transparency and “gov 2.0,” new HUD leadership is beginning to address its long-ignored obligation to "affirmatively further fair housing."  New and innovative uses of technology provide HUD with one type of common-sense tool to meet this mandate in the 21st century.  Technology can be used to advance transparency and accountability of HUD programs, to increase public participation in decision-making processes concerning regional equity, to better inform the public about housing opportunities, and to strengthen cooperative relationships between HUD and its grantees.  Below, we offer eleven recommendations on how FHEO can harness these new tools to affirmatively further fair housing, end discrimination in housing, better serve victims of discrimination, and promote residential integration. At the end of each is a link to the "HUD Ideas in Action Forum" where you can vote to register your support for that recommendation with HUD.

Starting at around noon (eastern) on Sunday, June 7th and continuing through noon on Tuesday, June 9th, we'll be live blogging from the National Fair Housing Alliance's annual conference. This year's conference, entitled "Fair Housing in the 21st Century: Realizing a More Perfect Union" (link to agenda, .pdf) is taking place at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill.

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Editor's note: Last night Relman & Dane sponsored a fantastic reception for conference attendees, and I promised at the end of yesterday's post to note any highlights. Matthew Dietz told me about the below video of HUD's fair housing mascot, Franklin the Fair Housing Fox. Amazing.

9:15am - NFHA's Shanna Smith opens the morning telling the story of the passage of the Fair Housing Act and the role that Sens. Mondale and Brooke played in its passage. NFHA is honoring Henry Cisneros and Jack Kemp (whose son Jimmy Kemp is in attendance to accept the award) with the Walter F. Mondale and Edward W. Brooke Fair Housing Award for their chairmanship of the National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity during the summer of 2008. This is only the second time the award has been given in NFHA's 20 year history. 

Starting at around noon (eastern) on Sunday, June 7th and continuing through noon on Tuesday, June 9th, we'll be live blogging from the National Fair Housing Alliance's annual conference. This year's conference, entitled "Fair Housing in the 21st Century: Realizing a More Perfect Union" (link to agenda, .pdf) is taking place at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill.

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1:17pm - Lunch keynote speaker Loretta King, the acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, opens by applauding the collabortion between NFHA and DOJ and recognizing the many DOJ staffers who are in the audience. She then asks who in the audience can truly say that throughout their lifetimes has truly lived in integrated housing. Just one person raises their hand.

1:21pm - King notes, "Since January 2009, we have significantly enhanced our enforcement efforts, and yes I am here to brag about it." DOJ has filed 16 fair housing act cases already this calendar year.

Starting at around noon (eastern) on Sunday, June 7th and continuing through noon on Tuesday, June 9th, we'll be live blogging from the National Fair Housing Alliance's annual conference. This year's conference, entitled "Fair Housing in the 21st Century: Realizing a More Perfect Union" (link to agenda, .pdf) is taking place at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill.

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9:07am - NFHA's Shanna Smith takes the stage to kick off the day, introducing the newly re-elected board chair Jim McCarthy of the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center.

9:11am - McCarthy introduces the morning plenary: "Realizing a More Perfect Union: Building Healthy and Inclusive Communities". The panel is moderated by Prof Melissa Harris-Lacewell of Princeton University and includes I. King Jordan of Galludet University, Janis Bowdler of the National Council of La Raza, Hilary Shelton of the NAACP Washington Bureau, and Karan Narasaki of the Asian American Justice Center.

Starting at around noon (eastern) on Sunday, June 7th and continuing through noon on Tuesday, June 9th, we'll be live blogging from the National Fair Housing Alliance's annual conference. This year's conference, entitled "Fair Housing in the 21st Century: Realizing a More Perfect Union" (link to agenda, .pdf) is taking place at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill.

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1:05pm - The doors are opened and the room quickly begins to fill up. This year's regular line-up of Prof. Bob Schwemm and John Relman has expanded by one this year - they are joined by Prof. Rigel C. Oliveri of the University of Missouri.

1:10pm - NFHA's president and CEO Shanna Smith takes the podium to welcome everyone to the official start of the conference and recognize the sponsors of this year's event: MORA Financial Mortgage Services, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, Ocwen Financial Corporation, Bank of America, Relman & Dane, Saxon Mortgage Services, National Association of Realtors, PMI Mortgage Insurance Company, and MetLife Auto & Home..