Continue reading Final Fair Housing Friday of Fair Housing Month
All posts by Corrine Yonce
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Join Us to Celebrate Fair Housing Month
It is almost our favorite time of year here at the Fair Housing Project of CVOEO- Fair Housing Month!
Each April at CVOEO’s Fair Housing Project, we celebrate the 1968 passage of the Fair Housing Act with a series of public education and art events to raise awareness about housing discrimination in Vermont and the positive role that inclusive, affordable housing plays in thriving communities. To promote Fair Housing education and awareness, the Fair Housing Project facilitates a series of zoom webinars, Fair Housing workshops, and art activities, prompting participants to reflect on what Fair Housing means in their community.
Join us!
There are a variety of ways you, your community, or your organization can participate in the celebration this year, despite us being unable to meet in person. Our Fair Housing Month calendar is filling with events hosted by us and organizations across the state, including Fair Housing Friday zoom webinars, the Old North End Art Center’s art camps, and HeART & Home community art project, library book and film discussions, and Fair Housing workshops.
Let us know how you, your community, or your organization would like to participate by filling out this brief form.
(Of course, we anticipate these activities will be held remotely, and when possible, outdoors with physical distancing.)
Here are some examples of the variety of ways you can join us in celebrating Fair Housing Month:
- Host an event in your community focusing on the history and impact of the Fair Housing Act, local housing needs, or the value of diversity and inclusion in housing (which we will add to our Fair Housing Month event calendar)
- Participate in the HeART & Home Community Art Project, or lead a HeART & Home Community Art activity in your community/classroom/organization
- Participate as a panelist in one of our three Fair Housing Fridays
- Invite us to do a Fair Housing workshop with your community/organization
- Start a discussion group in your organization or community (see list of books and films at https://libraries.vermont.gov/fairhousing2021)
This year we have a new partnership with the Vermont Department of Libraries and Vermont Library Association for new activities, like book discussion groups, story walks, and more at sites all over the state. Click here to learn more!
Are you curious about our HeART & Home Community Art Project? Check out a couple of the prompts we are sharing with our project participants.
For examples of past activities and to see this year’s full calendar of events (which will be posted later this month), visit www.FairHousingMonthVT.org.
If you are interested in participating in any capacity in our Fair Housing Month Celebration, please fill out this brief form.
Fair Housing Month activities in Vermont are coordinated by the Fair Housing Project of CVOEO, in collaboration with Vermont Department of Libraries, Vermont Library Association, ONE Arts Center, Vermont Legal Aid, Vermont Human Rights Commission, VT Department of Housing and Community Development, and other partners. This program is supported by a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Fair Housing Initiatives Program grant and supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency, through the Library Service and Technology Act as administered by the Vermont Department of Libraries.
Fair Housing is the right to equal opportunity in housing choice and the right to rent, buy, finance, and live in a home free from discrimination or harassment. The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, and as amended, disability and family status. This also covers harassment, including sexual harassment.
Vermont has additional protections based on age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, receipt of public assistance, being a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, and denial of development permitting based on the income of prospective residents.
To learn more about your Fair Housing rights and responsibilities, visit www.cvoeo.org/fhp and see www.fairhousingmonthvt.org for April fair Housing Month details. Contact us at fhp@cvoeo.org.
Fair Housing Friday: Just Cause Eviction & Why It is Important for Housing Equity Feb 26
Join us for a lunchtime conversation on Just Cause Eviction on Friday, Feb. 26 – 12:30-1:30pm.
Panelists include Brian Pine, speaking on behalf of the Just Cause Coalition, Michael Monte from Champlain Housing Trust, Bor Yang from the Vermont Human Rights Commission, and Christie Delphia from the Burlington Tenants Union.
This conversation will highlight the ways language similar to Just Cause is already being used by nonprofit housers across Vermont, why evictions should be avoided & when they are actually necessary, and how Just Cause can combat housing discrimination. This lunchtime conversation will be recorded and have time at the end for a Q & A session.
Register using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvd-2hrDovG90HXUx0PDe1zXZYj6e7HHnI
And you can share our facebook event here:
http://https://www.facebook.com/events/451236372739293
Regarding the Just Cause Opposition’s recent disinformation campaign:
On Monday Morning of February 22nd, leaders from Rights & Democracy VT, Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, The Black Perspective, Burlington City Council, Burlington Tenants Union, Burlington VT Democrats Vermont, state representative Kesha Ram -among others- came forward to address a recent disinformation campaign lead by the opposition to Just Cause. Leaders condemn the red lawn signs designed to scare tenants, spread baseless statements and co-op racial equity language.
And here is the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalitions response to this recent smear campaign: https://www.vtaffordablehousing.org/2021/02/19/the-vermont-affordable-housing-coalition-fully-supports-the-burlington-just-cause-charter-change-proposal/
Join COVID Support VT for a Virtual Town Hall on Housing Assistance: 5-7pm Feb. 4
ft. Brenda E. Patoine Freelance Writer/Reporter/Photojournalist for COVID Support VT
This guest blog feature is by Brenda E. Patoine
Freelance Writer/Reporter/Photojournalist working with COVID Support VT. COVID Support VT helps people cope with the pandemic through education, emotional support and connections to community services that promote resilience, empowerment and recovery. CVOEO’s Fair Housing project welcomes our partners to add their voices to our Thriving Communities blog. Please send inquiries to fhp@cvoeo.org
Continue reading Join COVID Support VT for a Virtual Town Hall on Housing Assistance: 5-7pm Feb. 4
The Enduring Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
While Martin Luther King Day is relegated to one day each year, it is important to remember that the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s lives on, his advocacy and preaching never loosing relevance in our day-to-day. Throughout our Vermont communities, folks came together to reflect and celebrate the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s commitment to justice.
The Fair Housing Project’s partner, the Old North End Arts Center, celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s legacy with their Better World Camp. The ONE Art Center invited kids to explore kindness through art projects, focusing on fun and the different ways the children can express themselves. They spent MLK Day by making art projects in a variety of media, practicing drama, storytelling, dancing, playing organized games, asking kids to think about What is service to others?
The pandemic has put unprecedented stress on our communities, our families, our coworkers, our neighbors. But as we move into the safety of the zoom cyber space, collaboration has become second nature. Organizations have the flexibility to not only cohost conversation across sectors, but even for connections to be built across state lines. The City of Burlington hosted this thought-provoking panel on Reparations and Reconciliation, inviting not just local city officials and scholars, but representatives from other cities experiencing their own Reparations and Reconciliation discussions and legislative actions.
Following the themes advocates and leaders raised in this conversation, in this VT Digger article, Rohan and his brothers, Aaron and Justin Providence, share a vulnerable conversation about their experiences growing up Black in Vermont with a level of candidness new even to their own family.
“You have to take a step back and just listen,” Rohan tells VT Digger, echoing a sentiment not only shared in the city hosted panel on Reparation and Reconciliation, but an echo of Black voices since the beginning of the racial justice movement. With vulnerable honesty, this family shares their story to illustrate what must be done all across Vermont: frank conversations about race and racism in our communities.
That “raw truth” is core to this powerful commentary from Kesha Ram (D-Chittenden), Vermont’s first woman of color to serve in the state Senate. State Senator Ram points to the glaring racial disparities in COVID-19 rates, policing, and homeownership as the true causes of Vermont’s prevalent & persistent whiteness. Ram corrects the popular and comfortable opinion that Vermont’s lack of racial diversity can be solved merely through more rigorous recruitment, adding critical insight to an urgent equity issue in our state.
You can find the rest of Burlington’s recorded MLK Day events, including a story walk organized by Fletcher Free Library that you can still participate in on your own, here.
Understanding Protections Against Sexual Harassments in Housing
ft. Emily Collins, Civil Rights Specialist Contractor for The United States Attorney’s Office of the District of Vermont
This guest blog feature is by Emily Collins, a Civil Rights Specialist, Contractor for Vermont’s United States Attorney’s Office . The United States Attorney’s Office is one of the resources available for folks who want to file a complaint about housing discrimination, particularly if there are patterns or practices of discrimination. CVOEO’s Fair Housing project welcomes our partners to add their voices to our Thriving Communities blog. Please send inquiries to fhp@cvoeo.org Continue reading Understanding Protections Against Sexual Harassments in Housing