Interfaith Action Network Monthly
December 2018

Ready, Set, Action
It is the holiday season - a time of connection, family, and joyful celebration for many!

We are already gearing up for the work ahead in the new year. With the end of the 50th anniversary of the passage of the federal Fair Housing Act upon us, we must renew our commitment to fair housing so that, fifty years from now, fair housing will truly be a living reality for all. We also want to celebrate you -- supporters of fair housing and the Fair Housing Justice Center -- as the year comes to a close. Thank you for being partners in this vital work!

Now, check out some updates on what we have been working on this past month.
Educate
Below are some educational resources we recommend for you to learn more about fair housing.

  • Last month we shared several book recommendations to help you learn more about fair housing, regionally and nationally. Here is another book recommendation for you:

  • A Shared Future: Fostering Communities of Inclusion in an Era of Inequality by Christopher Herbert, Jonathan Spader, Jennifer Molinsky, and Shannon Rieger: This books features leading academics, practitioners, and policymakers grappling with the question of how to meaningfully reduce residential segregation and/or mitigate its negative consequences in the United States. Learn more here.

  • Last month, the Poverty & Race Research Action Council released a new report, "Coordination of Community Systems and Institutions to Promote Housing and School Integration" by Philip Tegeler and Micah Herskind. This report highlights a range of examples of public and private cross-sector efforts to ameliorate racial and economic segregation in both housing and schools. Read the full report here. A recent article by the Urban Institute also explores the connection between school segregation and housing segregation, and how both need to be addressed in tandem to affect real change.

  • One of the effects that housing discrimination and residential racial segregation has on our society is deepening the disparities in homeownership and the accumulation of wealth. In February 2018, the Urban Institute examined the gap in homeownership for African Americans. Read the full article on the Institute's findings here. If you are interested in the subject, check an article published last month in Curbed on how homes owned by African Americans are significantly devalued and the effects that devaluation has on communities and families across generations.

  • Fair Housing Toolkit现在有中文版了。¡El Toolkit de Equidad de Vivienda ahora está en español! The Fair Housing Toolkit is now in Chinese (Simplified) and Spanish! Check out the translated versions of the Fair Housing Toolkit (as well as the English language version) here.
Advocate
Time to get out and advocate in your community! Below are some advocacy updates and ways that you can get involved.

  • Hundreds of people gathered at CUNY Graduate Center last week to attend the Regional Affordable & Fair Housing Summit. This full-day summit brought together an assemblage of fair housing and affordable housing organizations, experts, and advocates for information sharing as we debuted our Regional Affordable and Fair Housing Roundtable's policy platform - Closing the Divide: Creating Equitable, Inclusive and Affordable Communities. Read our draft working paper here. You can share your feedback and comments about this draft paper by emailing closingthedivideny@enterprisecommunity.org until December 7, 2018.
Building the Beloved Community
Want to get involved in the Building the Beloved Community interfaith initiative in some other way? Below are some updates from our interfaith initiative:

  • Are you a member of a group, congregation or community that you think would benefit from learning more about their fair housing rights and how to combat housing discrimination? Invite us to host a fair housing presentation in your community and we can do that work for you - just fill out the form on our website and we will be in touch to set it up.

  • Interested in diving deeper into fair housing issues and digging into what housing inequality means for your community? You sound like a fair housing leader! Email FHJC’s Education Coordinator Caitlin Mroz at cmroz@fairhousingjustice.org to be the first to know about the upcoming interactive workshops we will be holding to train new leaders on how to make effective change where they live.

“I do not think of political power as an end. Neither do I think of economic power as an end. They are ingredients in the objective that we seek in life. And I think that end of that objective is a truly brotherly society, the creation of the beloved community.”

- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., article in Christian Century Magazine, July 13, 1966

Fair Housing Justice Center | 30-30 Northern Blvd., Suite 302, Long Island City, NY 11101
| (212) 400 - 8201 | (212) 400 - 8203 | www.fairhousingjustice.org