Successful Strategies: Local Partners

The Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston

Increasing Tenant Involvement in South Boston's Public Housing

Providing Resources to Minority Tenant Activists
One of the first areas in which the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston made inroads was South Boston, which had been a segregated, predominantly white area of the city with a history of resisting desegregation. Fair Housing Center Executive Director David Harris attended police task force meetings for Boston Public Housing residents, where he met Lea Rios, a tenant organizer from the Old Colony Project. Harris served as a resource for Rios in her efforts to reorganize Old Colony's tenant task force to include legitimate minority representation. Harris believes he was able to provide Rios with substantive resources because he spent months on a "listening tour" before offering support. This strategy was in keeping with Greater Boston Fair Housing's "ground-up approach." As a new organization, the Center and its leaders believed the best way to help was to learn first.
Enhancing the work of FANS
Ginny Hamilton-Ashe of the Fair Housing Center made a connection with Families Advocating Neighborhood Strength (FANS), a South Boston community coalition working to address the needs of low-income families.
By reaching out to FANS and becoming affiliated with it, Hamilton-Ashe is able to keep the group focused on fair housing and race issues.

Active Participation in the Greater Boston Civil Rights Coalition
On behalf of the Fair Housing Center, David Harris is co-chair of the Greater Boston Civil Rights Coalition, a network of civil rights groups that meets regularly to exchange ideas and provide support for individual objectives and common goals.

Through active involvement with a region-wide coalition of civil rights groups, Harris has both enhanced the Center's work and brought a housing focus to the range of its civil rights issues. This strategy of forming and/or working with coalitions whenever possible empowers all organizations involved, many of which are under-funded and under-staffed.

"We Don't Want Your Kind Living Here"
On April 24, 2001, the Fair Housing Center released "We Don't Want Your Kind Living Here," a 30- page report on discrimination in the Greater Boston rental market. The Center conducted extensive inperson and telephone testing in four Boston neighborhoods and 12 communities bordering the city. Results revealed that more than 50 percent of testers were discriminated against.

The Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston produced concrete proof that discrimination in Greater Boston's rental market was widespread. The report was thorough, extensive and professionally conducted. It was a factual indictment and generated wide media coverage.

Fighting Discriminatory Rental Advertisements
The Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston negotiated a court settlement in early July 2001 with The Boston Globe, which had been illegally publishing discriminatory rental advertisements. The landlords who placed the ads were overtly or covertly discouraging applicants with children or federal subsidies from renting, a practice that is illegal. The federally-enforceable agreement which was put into place as a result of the Fair Housing Center's legal action requires training, education and policy changes at the Globe.

The Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston was a fledgling fair housing center operating in a metropolitan area where the powers-that-be were either dismissive or ignorant of federal fair housing laws. While the primary focus of CommUNITY 2000 was on changing community attitudes rather than enforcement, the Greater Boston organization needed to do both. As the Boston Globe lawsuit illustrates, the Fair Housing Center put Greater Boston on notice: We're here and we're watching.

The Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities

Congregations Building CommUNITY
The Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities and its co-sponsor, the National Conference for Community and Justice, brought together more than 200 congregations throughout the Chicago area to participate in "Congregations Building CommUNITY." Religious leaders agreed to set aside the weekend of March 31-April 2, 2000, to address their congregations' moral obligation to promote fair housing and racial justice.

The event was so successful that the Leadership Council and other organizers reconvened "Congregations Building CommUNITY" as a federation for faith-based groups involved in housing and racial justice issues.

The following year, the weekend of April 29-May 1, was set aside for "Congregations Building Community" activities. Diverse local events were held throughout the region, as well as a central event celebrating faith-based activism for fair and affordable housing. The latter brought together activists, lay people and religious leaders.

By reconnecting with the Chicago area's religious leaders, the Leadership Council was able to reawaken enthusiasm for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s premise that people of faith must be committed to open, accessible, diverse neighborhoods.

The Lake County Anti-Hate Crimes Task Force
After the Lake County State's Attorney publicly expressed interest in examining the county's approach to fighting hate crimes, the Leadership Council and its subcontracting local partners began working with organizations in Lake County to form an anti-hate crimes task force.

Despite difficulty building local leadership, the two-year effort resulted in a broad coalition of agencies and actors committed to working on hate crimes and other bias issues. The task force continues to work together, has staged three workshops on hate crimes, and is planning for a year-long education and organizing effort with Partners Against Hate, a collaborative initiative of LCCREF, the Anti- Defamation League, and the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence.

Formation of the task force was successful on balance because the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities' strategy has been to stay the course. The Leadership Council and its CommUNITY 2000 subcontracting local partners have made a commitment to keep the task force operating as an educational and capacity building organization.

Immigrant Fair Housing Roundtable
Aware that immigrant groups in the Chicago area experience many tensions around housing issues, the Leadership Council convened the Immigrant Fair Housing Roundtable in the fall of 1999. It brought immigrant service and advocacy organizations together with fair housing organizations to address the fair housing needs of the Chicago region's growing immigrant population. The roundtable produced a fair housing resource guide for organizations working with immigrants, and identified code enforcement policies and practices that municipalities use to harass immigrants.

This is an excellent example of the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities exercising its ability to build coalitions region-wide. By bringing fair housing and immigrant groups together regularly, the Leadership Council ensured that participants could develop productive relationships.

Regional Exchange Congress in Oak Park
The Leadership Council convened the Regional Exchange Congress in Oak Park the weekend of September 20-21, 2000. It brought together leaders from stable and diverse communities with those struggling with growing diversity. It enabled them to share a wealth of information through a series of panel discussions.

The Leadership Council's innovative strategy was to take a tested idea and build on it. For many years beginning in the late 1970s, the Oak Park Exchange Congress (Oak Park is an integrated suburb of Chicago) brought together diverse communities from around the country to share ideas and develop relationships. The Leadership Council adjusted the format to address issues concerning communities in the region. The success of the conference has led to planning for a national conference that will be held in Cleveland in Fall 2002.

Meeting the Challenges of Diversity Conference
The Leadership Council and the Northern Illinois Planning Commission co-sponsored the Meeting the Challenges of Diversity Conference on April 7, 2000. It explored ways for public officials to balance the economic, development, zoning and occupancy interests of municipalities with the fair housing rights of an increasingly diverse population.

In this case, the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities, with its extensive history and reputation in the Chicago area, was able to make the most of its relationships outside the world of fair housing and civil rights. The Council enhanced these connections by joining with an organization such as the Northern Illinois Planning Commission. Establishing partnerships with regional planning groups helps build relationships, and focus increased attention on planning equitably for a diverse population.

Education Outreach
The Leadership Council helped sponsor events for administrators of high schools in Chicago's south and west suburbs to learn about anti-bias programs. The two events attracted several dozen administrators; a handful of these adopted anti-discrimination training programs for their students and/or staffs.

The modest success of this event demonstrates the importance of using creative approaches to reach new audiences on fair housing and community tension reduction issues. Helping to create anti-discrimination programs in even a handful of schools can serve as a foundation for more intensive efforts down the road.

Access Living

A Self-Advocacy Curriculum for People with Disabilities
In a wholly innovative approach to advancing the fair housing rights of people with disabilities, Access Living developed a self-advocacy curriculum to help disabled individuals better understand and exercise their housing rights.

The Olmstead decision is a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that challenges Federal, state and local governments to develop more opportunities for persons with disabilities. The decision interprets the Americans with Disabilities Act to require states to administer their services, programs and activities in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of individuals with disabilities. Access Living contends that group homes often operate in ways that run counter to the Olmstead decision because residents are forced to agree to restrictive conditions in exchange for housing. Residents accept these conditions because they do not know their rights.

Access Living not only taught self-advocacy to groups of disabled people, but also trained them as peerto- peer instructors. Access Living then arranged for these instructors to conduct self-advocacy training sessions in group homes throughout the Chicago area.

The strength of Access Living's strategy was its willingness to propose and then execute unorthodox solutions to fair housing issues facing the disabled. Access Living was not afraid to challenge the status quo. After two years of implementing its innovative approach as a CommUNITY 2000 partner, Access Living is beginning to change notions about fair housing for the disabled, not only in Chicago but elsewhere across the country.

Educating the Population At Large
Access Living reinforced its self-advocacy curriculum for the disabled by educating the following groups:

Fair Housing Advocates
Access Living hosted a series of community forums to teach them about the needs and rights of people with disabilities. Many advocates automatically assumed that group home providers spoke on behalf of group home residents. Housing advocates further assumed that group home situations were beneficial, and they did not know about alternatives.
College Students
Access Living conducted housing workshops in those university and college classes that teach disability-related curricula on why current living situations for the disabled often are oppressive.
Politicians and Policy Makers
Access Living organized a grassroots lobbying effort to push lawmakers to revamp the existing housing system so that the disabled are in control of their living choices, and are not forced to accept certain services in exchange for a place to live.

Access Living was working toward systemic change in the way society at large views the fair housing rights of the disabled. Therefore, it looked for ways to influence any group that could have a role in affecting change.

A Rapid Response System
Access Living developed a rapid response system — a plan for reacting quickly when community tensions arise — that aids disabled persons who feel threatened, no matter their living situation. Access Living's rapid response system mobilizes when community tensions arise because a person with disabilities moves into a neighborhood. Regarding group homes, Access Living also executes its rapid response system when a group home resident experiences tensions within the home itself. If neighborhood tensions involve a group home, Access Living stipulates that it will use the rapid response system only if a resident of a group home feels threatened, not a group home provider.

Ever mindful of its ultimate goal to help the disabled population become as independent as possible, Access Living designed its rapid response system to further that goal.

The Fair Housing Council of San Diego

A Rapid Response Team
The Fair Housing Council of San Diego set the stage for creation of a rapid response team by becoming a member of the San Diego Regional Hate Crimes Coalition. Eventually the FHCSD was able to transform a subcommittee of this group into a rapid response team, which focused its efforts on the kinds of housing-related tensions that can lead to hate crimes.

By the end of the second year of CommUNITY 2000, this coalition of civil rights and legal activists established an email network that continues to serve as an effective rapid response tool. Here's how it works: A coalition member becomes aware that someone in the San Diego area is experiencing housing-related harassment or discrimination. The member notifies others in the email network; they quickly exchange information, then act.

The Fair Housing Council's strategy for forming a rapid response team worked because Director Mary Scott Knoll developed a mutually beneficial relationship with a well-established San Diego coalition. The FHCSD was spared the considerable time and effort of forming its own coalition. The coalition gained critical insight from the FHCSD's housing perspective.

Unity Fest 2001
Held March 27-28, 2001, Unity Fest featured dance, musical and theatrical performances by numerous groups representing San Diego's ethnic diversity. Unity Fest 2001 attracted the attention of a civil rights group in northern San Diego County, which is joining forces with the council for a Unity Fest 2002 celebration.

Despite modest attendance, Unity Fest attracted considerable attention from those who took part because it was a positive, celebratory event. The Council demonstrated that fostering good will and diversity in communities wasn't just a moral and social obligation. Fostering diversity also could be culturally enriching and a lot of fun.

"Hate Crimes in Housing Are Unlawful" Flyers
The Council produced informational flyers, titled "Hate Crimes in Housing Are Unlawful," in English and Spanish as well as several different Asian and African languages. These were distributed to buyers, renters, real estate professionals, community organizations, churches, synagogues and mosques.

As part of its strategy to educate people about their housing rights and responsibilities, the Council was determined to produce and distribute material to those least likely to understand or report hate crimes. Recipients welcomed the flyers, which also became another rapid response tool for the Council.

Hate Crimes Flow Chart
The Council collaborated with the California Department of Justice to develop a statewide hate crimes flow chart that links all California fair housing centers to state resources.

One of the Council's goals was to improve the flow and distribution of information among groups that essentially were working toward the same ends. The hate crimes flow chart furthered that goal.

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