Fair Housing and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Presented by Debbie Piltch, Esq., Piltch Associates Our obligations under Federal, State and local Fair Housing laws haven’t changed during the COVID-19 Pandemic. So why focus on Fair Housing? During the COVID-19 Pandemic: · Our country has seen a dramatic increase in discriminatory incidents and harassment based on national origin, which raises significant concern regarding how we effectively address such complaints given that some of the tools we would standardly use may not be available to us. · The number of incidents of domestic violence have increased, while our capacity to make external emergency transfers may have decreased. · We have had to significantly change our business operations in order to maintain the health and safety of staff and residents and comply with required and recommended social distancing initiatives leaving us potentially vulnerable to allegations of discriminatory treatment. · People impacted by the virus are requesting reasonable accommodations, raising questions about whether they meet the definition of a disability and if so, whether their request is “reasonable.” · The importance of communicating effectively with applicants and residents with limited English proficiency has been heightened. · There is a lot of confusion regarding what questions we can legally ask an applicant/resident due to health and safety concerns. During this webinar we will discuss these and other Fair Housing related concerns, and provide ideas as to how to effectively address them. Level: All Levels Track: Elderly/Disabled Population, Family & Youth, Supervisory/Management, Professional Development Format: Lecture, Q&A HUD Category: Federal and Applicable State Programs and Eligibility (Statutorily Required Training Area) Certificates will be issued following completion of the feedback form/session test which will be sent to you following the webinar via email. Note - this is a NERSC CEU. We have also applied for NASW CEUs and are awaiting approval and separate certificates will be issued to those indicating they require one on their feedback form. NERSC Webinars supported by CHFA, VHFA, Maine Housing, MassHousing, Rhode Island Housing and New Hampshire Housing.