North Penn Legal Services is offering a day of education and awareness about fair housing in a program entitled Fair Housing Forum: Understanding and Enforcing Fair Housing.  The forum will be held on Friday, April 21, 2017 at Northampton Community College - Alumni Hall, 3835 Green Pond Road, Bethlehem, PA.

A light breakfast and lunch will be provided to all participants.  There is no cost to attend the forum. However, the forum is limited to 100 people.

AGENDA:
 

8:15 - 8:45 AM - Registration and light breakfast

8:45 - 9:00 AM - Welcome and Reading of the Lehigh Valley Fair Housing Proclamation

9:00 - 9:30 AM - Overview of Fair Housing – Lori Molloy, Esq., and Marybeth Saporita, North Penn Legal Services. .5 CLE credit.
Review of applicable federal, state and local fair housing laws, and protected classes. Who is protected, what types of housing is included and where are cases filed?

9:30 - 11:00 AM - Understanding Fair Housing and the Loss of Housing - Ira Goldstein, Ph.D., President, Policy Solutions, Reinvestment Fund. 1.5 CLE credit. 
Professor Goldstein, former Mid-Atlantic Director and Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at HUD, will review the impact of the loss of housing and lending practices on fair housing. He will discuss the impact of evictions and foreclosures on our communities and the connection with fair housing. Reinvestment Fund is a results-oriented, socially responsible community investment group.

11:00 - 11:15 AM - Break

11:15 AM - 12:15 PM – Enforcing Fair Housing Laws - Rachel Wentworth, Executive Director, Housing Equality Center of Pennsylvania. 1 CLE credit.
Rachel Wentworth has been working at the Housing Equal Center for 17 years, providing fair housing education, testing and enforcement. Rachel will highlight current issues in fair housing enforcement, including national origin, familial status and disability discrimination. Recent local issues include zoning issues raised about group homes in residential communities.

12:30 - 1:15 PM - Lunch

1:15 - 2:30 PM - Panel discussion: Case Studies in Understanding and Addressing Fair Housing Violations - Moderated panel discussion highlighting issues facing real estate professionals, service and support animals in housing and national origin discrimination. Opportunities for Q & A from participants. 
 

Funding for the Fair Housing Forum is made possible by the five funders of the Lehigh Valley Fair Housing Project - City of Allentown, City of Bethlehem, City of Easton, County of Lehigh, and Northampton County. The food sponsor for this year's Fair Housing event is the Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors.

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