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1997 LICKING COUNTY HOUSING FORUM: Fair Housing
The One Year Use of Funds and the CHIS have identified fair housing issues as high priority need. The City and the County share a Fair Housing Officer who is housed at the City. Licking County annually contributes 15% of its CDBG fimds to this program. Recently a study was prepared which took a closer look at this issue. The following have been identified as impediments to fair housing:
1. Knowledge of prohibited practices
There appears to be a lack of knowledge concerning fair housing law relating to families with children and disabled individuals as a protected class with the owners of some rental units. This lack of knowledge creates the potential for discrimination due to ignorance.
The City of Newark and Licking County have promoted awareness of fair housing laws through extensive outreach efforts including publishing landlord/tenant booklets, promoting and providing educational seminars to schools, non-profit agencies, correctional facilities, substance abuse halfway houses and the local apartment owners association The Fair Housing Officer has been instrumental in helping residents of several apartment complexes form active, structured resident organizations, therefore providing a forum for open dialog of housing issues affecting them.
As varied as the outreach and educational activities are, there still exists a gap between the law and common practice of owners of some rental units. Typically these would be owners of small scale rental units.
2. Accessibility Issues
Although there exists no evidence of discrimination in this area, there is certainly a potential for problems based, to a great extent, on the population affected by this issue. Persons affected by accessibility issues many times have impairments which lessen their capacity to fully exercise their rights without assistance. In an effort to further promote accessibility in housing, the City and County will design an informational pamphlet highlighting accessibility guidelines and procedures for filing complaints. This pamphlet will be distributed to agencies, advocacy groups and other organizations that primarily serve the disabled community.
3. The Sale or Rental of Housing
Review of the data contained in the Analysis of Impediments indicated that the lending practices of local institutions is consistent with CRA and the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988. However, some home seekers are indicating to the Fair Housing Office that a lack of affordable housing continues to be a problem. This lack of affordable housing restricts people in their ability to purchase or rent housing, and can increase the potential for housing discrimination by creating competition that can be used to disguise unlawful discrimination practices.
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