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Despite the passage of the Fair Housing Act and other civil rights laws,
housing discrimination still remains an impediment to equal housing opportunities
throughout Summit County, the City of Barberton, and Ohio . The Fair Housing
Advocates Association (FHAA), a private, non-profit fair housing organization
was founded in 1993, to lead in the battle against housing discrimination.
Through education, enforcement, training, research, and advocacy, FHAA
promotes equality in housing, lending and insurance.
EDUCATION
| FHAA’s
public education sessions, seminars, brochures, radio programs,
and handbooks provide innovative and practical solutions for
combating housing discrimination. Its “Brightening
Our Future” program, a public education program in
which stories with a fair housing theme are used to educate
school students about fair housing, allowed it to receive a
2000 HUD Best Practice Award as one of the top 50 public education
programs in the United States. Also, FHAA develops billboards
and posters that provide information on recognizing and reporting
housing, lending and insurance discrimination, and racial and
sexual harassment in housing. |
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ENFORCEMENT
| FHAA coordinates
investigations of rental, sales, and insurance practices, and
has investigated, tested, conciliated, settled and or litigated
thousands of housing discrimination complaints based upon complaints
from victims of housing discrimination, etc. It assists victims
of housing discrimination in filing complaints with HUD and/or
the Ohio Civil Rights Commission (OCRC), it files lawsuits in
state and federal court, and has reached settlements with insurance
companies, newspaper publishers, management companies, and housing
providers. |
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TRAINING
| Through training
activities the FHAA equips, educates, and empowers housing providers,
social service organizations, and other interested parties with
skills, technical assistance, and information for complying
with fair housing laws and for combating housing discrimination.
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ADVOCACY
| FHAA supports
programs and services that affirmatively further fair housing
and it advocates for strong fair housing action by local and
state governments, local and state administrative agencies,
and courts and communities. It advocates on behalf of tenants
and home seekers to promote the providing of equal housing opportunities.
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