Are you looking for ways to get more involved with your local community and support Fair Housing in April? After all, it’s Fair Housing Month! At UCBR, we’re dedicating April to supporting our fellow REALTORS® by sharing Fair Housing resources and encouraging growth within our circles. There’s always something new to learn and we take pride in helping educate by sharing important information.
UCBR has multiple Fair Housing blogs published, which we’ve linked below. These blogs are perfect for an introductory refresher coupled with a fun history lesson when learning about the origins of the Fair Housing Act!
Branding Yourself As a Leader in Real Estate Equality
NAR’s Core Standards Updates on Fair Housing
Staying Informed on Fair Housing for Buyers and Renters
How to Prevent Accidental Fair Housing Violations
NAR’s Fair Housing Toolkit | How to Get Involved
The National Association of REALTORS® put together the Fair Housing Toolkit, which includes a printable poster, social media creative, Fair Housing activities, and more. Each of the resources are organized on one page and easy to utilize, whether you’re looking to schedule a few social media posts to help educate your audience or to get involved by putting together an event.
NAR put together the following zero-cost ideas for a Fair Housing event using existing resources:
- Issue a Proclamation: Work with your town, county or city to issue a proclamation recognizing the importance of fair housing and equal housing opportunities.
- Fair Housing Social Media Campaign: Make weekly posts about fair housing law, local fair housing history, stories about fair housing champions in your community, etc.
- Share Stories: Use the association’s existing newsletter, social media, podcasts or other communication channels to feature local fair housing champions and REALTORS® who are leaders in fair housing advocacy.
- Fairhaven Challenge: State associations – challenge locals to complete Fairhaven; honor the top 5 highest percentage of completion at the state convention. Local associations – challenge small, medium, and large brokerages to Fairhaven; honor the brokerages in each size category with the top 5 highest percentage of completion at an annual awards event.
If you’re able to go a step further, there are additional ideas for events you can organize within your community that are eligible for Fair Housing grants. An example of one of these events would be holding a class and having a guest speaker or develop a curriculum to design a course for current NAR members. The events list that are eligible for grants are broken up by Level 1 and Level 2, listed below:
Fair Housing Grants (Level 1)
- Book Club / Discussion Club: Select a book, documentary, or article on a fair housing issue and hold a virtual or in-person book/discussion club meeting. Invite the book author, a REALTOR®, community leader, or staff from a fair housing agency to lead the conversation.
- Hold a Class: Provide education opportunities for members to learn about fair housing and their responsibilities under the law.
- Guest Speaker: Host a local or national speaker to discuss a particular aspect of fair housing.
Fair Housing Grants (Level 2)
- Co-branded one-pager/brochure: Collaborate with a fair housing agency/nonprofit to create co-branded educational piece for members and/or consumers that explains rights and responsibilities under the Fair Housing Act.
- Legislative Initiatives: Offset the costs of drafting state legislative or local ordinance provisions that furthers fair housing.
- Work in Partnership: Collaborate with a local organization with a fair housing mission on their initiatives to ensure equal housing opportunities in the community.
- Speaker Series: Organize a series of three or more speakers around a theme, such as working with clients with disabilities, the history of fair housing law, or recognizing implicit bias.
- Fair Housing Symposium: Bring together REALTORS®, consumers, and community stakeholders to discuss the importance of fair housing and local efforts to ensure equal housing opportunities.
- Develop Curriculum: Work with a course developer and fair housing experts to design a fair housing education course for members.
- Fair Housing Month Posters: Distribute NAR Fair Housing Month posters to area principal and managing brokers along with a personal invite to the association’s fair housing events, education and activities.
- That’s Who We R Fair Housing Assets: Create public-facing marketing that amplifies That’s WhoWe R fair housing assets.
We encourage you to get involved in any way that you can, even just by helping to spread the word. The above resources help make this process even easier, and the more people we can educate, the better!
