2000 Annual Report

The year 2000 completed 44 years in the history of the Fair Housing Council of Suburban Philadelphia, 'The Nation's Oldest Fair Housing Council.' Over the years the Council has had several name changes, based on the expansion of the scope of its activities. The early name, the Committee for Democracy in Housing, changed in 1976 when the Council was incorporated as the Lansdowne-Upper Darby Fair Housing Council. In 1984 an amendment changed the name to the Fair Housing Council of Delaware County. By 1992 service area expansion resulted in another amendment to the Articles of Incorporation providing its current name The Fair Housing Council of Suburban Philadelphia.

Last year we reported to you that we had completed a 1999 Planning Advance with the Council's Board, members and staff. Subsequently the Board of Directors approved key issues and programmatic responses to guide future planning and actions. No name change was involved. The staff Work Plan provides goals and timetables as required by the primary funding sources to assure completion of programmatic commitments. We shall continue to refine our plans, activities and assessment tools to carry out the purpose of the Council "to promote open housing."

We are pleased that this Council received a national "Simply the Best" award for "Outstanding Achievement" from Secretary Andrew Cuomo at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Best Practices and Technical Assistance Symposium 2000 held in Washington D.C. We are delighted also by the recognition given to Council's Executive Director and Assistant Director for their achievements in the areas of fair housing education, enforcement and compliance. We also report the continuing work that focuses on the issue of predatory lending, which often targets minority and poor communities.

We welcome the addition of a new full time staff member, Rachel Wentworth, who joined us in August 2000 as the Test Coordinator to continue the Council's enforcement testing program dealing with discriminatory practices. A development consultant, Helene Broitman, is helping the Council to raise much needed foundation and other-source funds. We are appreciative of the work of our part-time bookkeeper Lynne Ellison. I report that our several Board committees have been very active and invite members of the Council to join them in various activities.

As we end our year, former Board president and current treasurer, Bill Henderson rotates off our Board as required in our by-laws. He leaves us in much better financial shape than we have been in for a very long time. The chair of the nominating committee and very faithful member, Mary Washington also leaves our Board, as does board/executive member Robert Murphy and NAACP representative Ann Geers. I thank all of the members of the Board for demonstrating through their exemplary service to this Council, what volunteerism really means. All members and friends of the Council are invited to join with us in continuing to advocate for fair housing. The Fair Housing Council of Suburban Philadelphia can assure you, unfortunately, that housing discrimination still exists.

Jean E. Moore, Ed.D.

President of the Board of Directors

The Council’s education program received a national “Simply the Best” award for “Outstanding Achievement” from Secretary Andrew Cuomo at the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development’s (HUD) Best Practices & Technical Assistance Symposium 2000 held in Washington D.C. in August. The Council was selected as one of the fifty best practice award winners from HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) for “Maximizing the Use of Comprehensive Fair Housing Education and Outreach.”

The Mid Atlantic Office of HUD nominated the Council for this award. The nomination stated that “FHCSP has dedicated a large portion of its resources to educating the public, supportive services agencies, public officials, Real Estate Professionals, Government entities, landlords, and advocacy groups about fair housing law. The comprehensive approach the Council has taken has brought the fight for Fair Housing ‘to the streets’.” This year alone the Council has trained 60 agencies and organizations, published 5 educational newsletters, written several articles for various local publications, updated and maintained a website with a wealth of fair housing information and assisted untold numbers of individuals by telephone.

In a letter to awardees, President Clinton stated that, “[T]hese ‘best practices’ have a significant impact on the lives of countless Americans through the creative and effective leveraging of resources. You are taking on some of the most difficult and important challenges we face today by helping those most in need, literally changing America for the better.” Eva Plaza, Assistant Secretary, Office of FHEO, in a letter announcing the award stated that the Council’s “efforts exemplify[y] what works in Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity, and for that you should be proud.”

The Council views our Educational programs as one of our most important functions. Our educational activities are the only way that information can be disseminated to consumers, counselors, advocates, government employees and housing providers. We all know that information is power. Without information individuals cannot know what their rights and responsibilities are under the law. Fair Housing is a Civil Rights law with very little public enforcement. Housing discrimination today rarely occurs in the blatant ways that it did a decade ago. Today, it often occurs with a smile and a handshake. The Council attends and hosts educational programs to assist and train individuals to recognize housing discrimination when they encounter it, to train housing counselors to recognize discrimination when their clients encounter it, to help government employees understand the ramifications of housing discrimination on their constituents, and to help housing providers understand their responsibilities under the law.

This year, Council staff spoke at 60 different agencies and events and more than 1,400 individuals were trained in Fair Housing. The following is a list of the many events:

This year the Council published three issues of the publication Delaware County Fair Housing News, including a special disability edition in the spring. This publication is mailed to 1,362 industry professionals and advocates in Delaware County and receives rave reviews from various recipients. This publication is sponsored by a grant from the Delaware County Office of Housing & Urban Development.

The Council published two issues of its fair housing newsletter Fairways this year. This newsletter once referred to as the “cutting edge of fair housing issues in the region” by Tri-County MLS, currently has a circulation of 1,128 members, consumers, housing providers, government employees, and fair housing advocates across the nation.

Finally, in the year 2000 Council staff assisted more than 650 people with information and referral requests over the telephone.

Enforcement Report

The Council’s educational programs are at the core of the Council activities. Yet doing education without also having investigational tools to follow-up complaints, and enforcement mechanisms in place to assure fair housing compliance, would make our educational activities worthless. The Council’s programs of education and enforcement go hand-in-hand.

This year the Council is pleased to announce the beginning of a new Fair Housing Initiatives Program Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development through their Private Enforcement Initiatives Program. This funding helps the Council continue its complaint testing program and helps us to test for compliance to fair housing laws throughout the housing industry. In August, Rachel Wentworth joined the staff of the Fair Housing Council as Test Coordinator. Rachel interned for the past year with the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center where she gained experience in fair housing complaint based and systemic testing as well as becoming familiar with fair housing laws and the enforcement process. In addition to continuing the Council’s enforcement testing program, she hopes to conduct more extensive systemic testing in order to learn more about the frequency of housing discrimination faced by home seekers in the suburban Philadelphia area.

In June, the Council settled a federal lawsuit against Woodbrook House Apartments in Newtown Square. In 1993 the Council began receiving complaints against this 78 unit apartment complex from families with children who claimed they were being denied housing there. The Council sent testers to the site and discovered that the complex did indeed have a policy of not renting to families with children. The Council filed a complaint at the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission at that time and eventually reached a settlement where the owners promised that they would follow fair housing laws in the future and offer their apartments to everyone on an equal basis.

In 1996 the Council again began receiving complaints against Woodbrook House Apartments. Now, however, the Council found upon investigation that the complex had a policy of charging a fee if there were more than two tenants in a unit. That fee was $362 a month per person for each extra person over 2 in a unit. This had the effect of keeping families with children from renting in the complex.

According to census data, about 27% of all apartments in Delaware County are leased to families with children. The Council discovered that only 3 out of 78 of the units at Woodbrook House were rented to families with children – only 4%.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Woodbrook House owners must display fair housing posters prominently, send an employee a year for three years to fair housing training, and pay the Council $68,000 in damages and fees.

This year saw an increase in the amount of complaints of discrimination the Council received. The following chart shows a breakdown based on the type of discrimination individuals are experiencing.

When the Council receives a complaint, staff members may assist the victim in filing a complaint, help the disabled victim to negotiate a reasonable accommodation or a reasonable modification, refer the victim to an outside agency or private attorney or investigate the site by sending testers to test for compliance with fair housing laws. In addition to complaint based tests, the Council worked on special testing projects this year with the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, the National Fair Housing Alliance, the U.S. Department of Justice and The City of Chester Economic Development Authority. The following charts show a breakdown of these tests based on the housing type tested and the protected class tested for.

The Consulting program is the final program in the Council’s three-pronged approach to fighting fair housing. This year, one of the main consulting activities the Council participated in was assisting several government entities in preparing their Consolidated Plan. The Consolidated Plan provides the framework for a planning process used by states and localities to identify housing, homeless, community and economic development needs and resources and to tailor a strategic plan for meeting those needs. States and localities that qualify for certain federal funding allocations must complete a Consolidated Plan with annual updates. A Consolidated Plan consists of a 3– to 5-year strategic plan, annual action plans, and annual performance reports. The strategic plans contain three parts: (1) a housing, homeless, community and economic development needs assessment; (2) a housing market analysis; and (3) long-term strategies to meet priority needs. The action plan describes the specific projects and activities that a jurisdiction will undertake in the coming year with its HUD funds to address those priority needs. The action plan also contains certifications indicating that a jurisdiction will follow certain requirements regarding furthering fair housing. This year the Council assisted the State of Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Chester County, Montgomery County, Bristol Township, the City of Chester, and Lower Merion Township with their consolidated Plans by providing data on housing discrimination and impediments to fair housing choice.

In addition the Council assisted the following organizations with various technical needs.