Fair Housing Virtual Conference 2021
"Riding the Wave of Change:
Advancing Fair Housing and Equity in a New Era"
April 29, 2021
9:30am - 1:30pm PST via Zoom
This virtual conference featured presenters who explored how we can best promote affirmative policies to advance fair housing and racial equity. The event created a space for community members, non-profits, advocates, real estate professionals, housing providers, and municipal leaders and staff to address pressing fair housing issues affecting communities in the Bay Area and strategies to re-energize fair housing initiatives, including affirmatively furthering fair housing.
Together, we can build on the legacy of the leaders of the civil rights movement to create a more just and equitable society. Furthering fair housing means advancing equity, not just in terms of housing choice, but also as it relates to all opportunities related to where you live, including employment, transportation, education, health, and access to financial markets.
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Conference Program
Moderator: William R. Tisdale, President and CEO, Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council
Opening Remarks: 9:30 - 9:45am
Caroline Peattie, Executive Director, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California
Session 1: 9:45 - 10:45am
"This Year is Not Last Year: What the Wave of Change Means for Fair Housing Work"
George Lipsitz, Professor Emeritus of Black Studies and Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara
Download the PowerPoint here.
Millions of people took to the streets of U.S. cities in 2021 to participate in mass demonstrations protesting the killings by police officers of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville. These protests shook up the social order and led individuals and institutions to embrace new racial justice initiatives. The wave of change that rose in the wake of those protests means that this year is not last year.
Local, state, and federal government agencies are rethinking and revising their policies. Philanthropic foundations, educational institutions, and for-profit businesses have launched new programs aimed at addressing structural racism. Prominent politicians, pundits, athletes, and entertainers have declared themselves proponents of social change. A massive turnout by supporters of racial justice in the 2020 elections means that there is now a new president, a new congress, and importantly, a new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development - one who understands fair housing law and is committed to its enforcement.
Although the wave of change seems to have come upon us suddenly and swiftly, waves do not rise up overnight. Oceanographers tells us that a wave that hits the shore has a long fetch, that it started days, weeks, and months ago, thousands of miles out to sea. The wave of historical change functions similarly. It appears to have popped up suddenly but is actually propelled by a long fetch that has been building for decades. Fair housing advocacy and action has been an important part of that long fetch. Fair housing activism is partially responsible for the size and scope of the present wave of change. Yet waves eventually break and fall. Rip currents beneath the surface can make riding them a perilous enterprise. The same forces responsible for the wave of change also saddle us this year with half a million deaths caused by irresponsible public health policies, with an even more unjust distribution of wealth than we faced one year ago, and with public displays of vicious, vile, and violent forms of white supremacy that we know have been there all along but now enjoy license to run free backed by powerful and wealthy individuals and groups. The wave of change has positive and negative dimensions. Meaningful fair housing activism is both more possible and more needed than it was last year, but also will be more daunting and more difficult than before.
Session 2: 10:45 - 11:45
"Advancing Fair Housing and Equity in the Golden State"
Gustavo F. Velasquez, Director, California Department of Housing and Community Development
Tyrone Buckley, Assistant Deputy Director of Fair Housing, California Department of Housing and Community Development
California stands to significantly advance the cause of fair housing in the years ahead as a result of the state's fair housing law and the expected renewed federal approaches. Join California Department of Housing and Community Development Director Gustavo Velasquez, who in 2015 led strategic efforts at HUD that released the AFFH rule, and who now leads the implementation of fair housing in California. He will discuss the impact of the announced return of the federal rule and be joined by HCD Assistant Deputy Director for Fair Housing Tyrone Buckley who will unveil two newly released and innovative tools designed to help local governments advance fair housing.
Break: 11:45am - 12:00pm
Session 3: 12:00 - 12:30
"Appraisal Discrimination - Present-Day Redlining"
Caroline Peattie, Executive Director, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California
Julian Glover, Race, Culture, and Social Justice Reporter, ABC7 KGO-TV Bay Area
Caroline Peattie and Julian Glover will discuss the expanding number of cases coming to light of Black and Latinx individuals and families who are alleging race and national origin discrimination in the appraisal process as they try to finance or sell their homes. While some may be cases of conscious or unconscious bias of individual appraisers, there is a deeper and systemic problem not only with the current appraisal process, but with the historic undervaluation of homes in neighborhoods of color.
Session 4: 12:30- 1:30pm
"Not in My Backyard: Exclusionary Zoning's Role in Perpetuating Racial Segregation"
Cashauna Hill, Executive Director, Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center
Download the PowerPoint here.
This talk will explore the history of how zoning and land-use policies, together with "not in my backyard" sentiments, have operated to largely keep people of color out of majority-white, well-resourced communities. To be clear, plenty of families of color will choose to live in communities that may have had a part in building and now offer rich cultural and familial connections - and those communities should experience thoughtful investment that connect, or keep those communities connected to, opportunity. However, we also know that, if a real choice were available, some families of color would choose to move to well-resourced communities that offer access to opportunity. We will examine how state and local decisions, together with individual attitudes and decisions, work to further create division and prevent people of color from having that choice. We will also discuss potential solutions and how we can all work to shift inequitable systems and policies.
Moderator: William R. Tisdale, President and CEO, Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council
Opening Remarks: 9:30 - 9:45am
Caroline Peattie, Executive Director, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California
Session 1: 9:45 - 10:45am
"This Year is Not Last Year: What the Wave of Change Means for Fair Housing Work"
George Lipsitz, Professor Emeritus of Black Studies and Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara
Download the PowerPoint here.
Millions of people took to the streets of U.S. cities in 2021 to participate in mass demonstrations protesting the killings by police officers of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville. These protests shook up the social order and led individuals and institutions to embrace new racial justice initiatives. The wave of change that rose in the wake of those protests means that this year is not last year.
Local, state, and federal government agencies are rethinking and revising their policies. Philanthropic foundations, educational institutions, and for-profit businesses have launched new programs aimed at addressing structural racism. Prominent politicians, pundits, athletes, and entertainers have declared themselves proponents of social change. A massive turnout by supporters of racial justice in the 2020 elections means that there is now a new president, a new congress, and importantly, a new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development - one who understands fair housing law and is committed to its enforcement.
Although the wave of change seems to have come upon us suddenly and swiftly, waves do not rise up overnight. Oceanographers tells us that a wave that hits the shore has a long fetch, that it started days, weeks, and months ago, thousands of miles out to sea. The wave of historical change functions similarly. It appears to have popped up suddenly but is actually propelled by a long fetch that has been building for decades. Fair housing advocacy and action has been an important part of that long fetch. Fair housing activism is partially responsible for the size and scope of the present wave of change. Yet waves eventually break and fall. Rip currents beneath the surface can make riding them a perilous enterprise. The same forces responsible for the wave of change also saddle us this year with half a million deaths caused by irresponsible public health policies, with an even more unjust distribution of wealth than we faced one year ago, and with public displays of vicious, vile, and violent forms of white supremacy that we know have been there all along but now enjoy license to run free backed by powerful and wealthy individuals and groups. The wave of change has positive and negative dimensions. Meaningful fair housing activism is both more possible and more needed than it was last year, but also will be more daunting and more difficult than before.
Session 2: 10:45 - 11:45
"Advancing Fair Housing and Equity in the Golden State"
Gustavo F. Velasquez, Director, California Department of Housing and Community Development
Tyrone Buckley, Assistant Deputy Director of Fair Housing, California Department of Housing and Community Development
California stands to significantly advance the cause of fair housing in the years ahead as a result of the state's fair housing law and the expected renewed federal approaches. Join California Department of Housing and Community Development Director Gustavo Velasquez, who in 2015 led strategic efforts at HUD that released the AFFH rule, and who now leads the implementation of fair housing in California. He will discuss the impact of the announced return of the federal rule and be joined by HCD Assistant Deputy Director for Fair Housing Tyrone Buckley who will unveil two newly released and innovative tools designed to help local governments advance fair housing.
Break: 11:45am - 12:00pm
Session 3: 12:00 - 12:30
"Appraisal Discrimination - Present-Day Redlining"
Caroline Peattie, Executive Director, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California
Julian Glover, Race, Culture, and Social Justice Reporter, ABC7 KGO-TV Bay Area
Caroline Peattie and Julian Glover will discuss the expanding number of cases coming to light of Black and Latinx individuals and families who are alleging race and national origin discrimination in the appraisal process as they try to finance or sell their homes. While some may be cases of conscious or unconscious bias of individual appraisers, there is a deeper and systemic problem not only with the current appraisal process, but with the historic undervaluation of homes in neighborhoods of color.
Session 4: 12:30- 1:30pm
"Not in My Backyard: Exclusionary Zoning's Role in Perpetuating Racial Segregation"
Cashauna Hill, Executive Director, Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center
Download the PowerPoint here.
This talk will explore the history of how zoning and land-use policies, together with "not in my backyard" sentiments, have operated to largely keep people of color out of majority-white, well-resourced communities. To be clear, plenty of families of color will choose to live in communities that may have had a part in building and now offer rich cultural and familial connections - and those communities should experience thoughtful investment that connect, or keep those communities connected to, opportunity. However, we also know that, if a real choice were available, some families of color would choose to move to well-resourced communities that offer access to opportunity. We will examine how state and local decisions, together with individual attitudes and decisions, work to further create division and prevent people of color from having that choice. We will also discuss potential solutions and how we can all work to shift inequitable systems and policies.
Biographies
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William Tisdale is the President and CEO of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council (MMFHC). Mr. Tisdale was hired as the Council’s first Housing Counselor in June 1978 and coordinated counseling and investigative services. In April 1981, he assumed the responsibilities of Chief Executive Officer. He was the founding President of the National Fair Housing Alliance (Washington, DC), where he served as president from 1988-1995. He has served on numerous national, state and local boards and committees and as a consultant for several State and national organizations, including the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and The Urban Institute (Washington, DC).
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George Lipsitz is Research Professor Emeritus of Black Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His thirteen single and co-authored books include The Possessive Investment in Whiteness (2018) and How Racism Takes Place (2011). Lipsitz is also the author of the chapter “Living Downstream: Fair Housing at Fifty” in the book The Fight for Fair Housing (2018) edited by Gregory Squires. He is a past board member of the Fair Housing Council of San Diego and of the National Fair Housing Alliance. Lipsitz was awarded the American Studies Association’s Angela Y. Davis Prize for Public Scholarship in 2013 and its Bode-Pearson Prize for Career Distinction in 2016.
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Gustavo F. Velasquez was appointed by Governor Newsom as Director of the California Department of Housing and Community Development in May of 2020. In this leadership role, Velasquez leads California's housing policy agenda and administers a wide range of programs that produce, preserve, and protect affordable housing and communities of opportunity across the state. Velasquez was Senior Director at the Urban Institute, a renowned national research organization, and also served for nearly three years as Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
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Tyrone Buckley has been appointed Assistant Deputy Director of Fair Housing at the California Department of Housing and Community Development, where he has served as Senior Policy Specialist since 2019. Buckley was Policy Director at Housing California from 2015 to 2019. He was a Legislative Advocate at the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation from 2012 to 2015. Buckley was Policy Director at Sacramento Housing Alliance from 2011 to 2012. He was Executive Director at Clean & Sober from 2010 to 2011. Buckley was Diversity Coordinator and Legislative Advocate at the Planning and Conservation League/PCL Foundation from 2001 to 2005. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Davis School of Law and a Master of City and Regional Planning degree from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
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Julian Glover joined ABC7 News team as a South Bay Reporter and fill-in anchor in December 2019. In January 2021, he was named to a new position with the station, leading its coverage of Race, Culture & Social Justice. The creation of this position is a demonstration of ABC's commitment to covering pressing issues affecting marginalized communities in a more comprehensive and culturally competent manner. Since taking on the position, his reporting on discrimination in the appraisal process has gone viral, garnering national attention. His work on "To Be the First": ABC's documentary on Vice President Kamala Harris and her rise from the Bay Are to the White House has been acquired by Hulu for international distribution.
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Caroline Peattie is the Executive Director of Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California (FHANC) and has been with the organization since 1996. Prior to her association with FHANC, she was the Executive Director of Sentinel Fair Housing in Oakland. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a B.A. in philosophy and earned a Masters in the Management of Human Services at the Florence Heller School of Social Welfare at Brandeis University. Ms. Peattie is a board member of the National Fair Housing Alliance and has been working in the fair housing field since 1987.
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Cashauna Hill has served as Executive Director of the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center (formerly the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center) since 2015. She leads a team working to fulfill LaFHAC’s mission to end discriminatory housing policies and practices through litigation and policy advocacy, along with fair housing trainings and foreclosure prevention counseling. Ms. Hill is a dynamic leader, advocate, and litigator, who has been interviewed by countless national and local media outlets, in addition to having written extensively about housing segregation and civil rights. Her background includes successful resolution of fair housing and lending claims through administrative and court processes. She is a graduate of Spelman College and Tulane Law School.
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Thank you to our conference sponsors!
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And other private donors.
