2019 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing: Phase 1 Report

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Is this a fair housing violation... How frequently do you think this occurs... Don't Know Unlikely Likely Never Rarely Occasionally Regularly 13.3% 26.7% 60.0% 0.0% 7.1% 50.0% 42.9% Correct Answer: Yes, it is likely that this scenario represents illegal discrimination. Legal Explanation: It is discrimination to "steer a person seeking to engage in a real estate transaction" on the basis of race" (H.R.S. § 515-3). "Steering" includes the practice of directing persons who seek to enter into a real estate transaction toward or away from real property in order to deprive them of the benefits of living in a discrimination -free environment" (H.R.S. § 515-2). 1.5 Summary and Recommendations Staff members of the County of Hawai`i's Office of Housing and Community Development showed a solid comprehension of basic fair housing issues. Survey respondents also expressed openness to and interest in additional fair housing training. In light of the complexity of many fair housing protections, and in particular, given the specific agency responses, we suggest efforts to deepen staff understanding of issues related to: mental illness; family and marital status; language translation and interpretation; and sex (especially as pertaining to domestic violence). Responses to the fair housing scenarios raise attention to the need for additional training in areas related to: 1) translation and interpretation of communications (both written and verbal) with limited or non-English speaking families (scenarios 3 and 4) and; 2) domestic violence (scenariol2). Notably, responses for scenarios 3, 4 and 12 were more often incorrect than correct. Importantly, responses indicate that encounters with domestic violence as well as translation issues occur more regularly than other possible fair housing violations, making these important areas of future development which should be of interest to the highly committed, educated, and Hawaii -rooted professionals of the Hawaii County Office of Housing and Community development. 22