Make Fair Housing Your Superpower With the Help of This Organization
Fair housing and those who face denial of fair housing need our concerted efforts 365/24/7 -- frankly, it needs to be our superpower. Yet, as I speak to brokers and agents throughout the United States, many of us are at a loss for constructive, ongoing activism that promotes fair housing AND seeks to right wrongs when fair housing has been violated.
There's a new movement growing
The Redress Project: The New Movement to Redress Racial Segregation (NMRRS) is a campaign focused on local organizing and citizen activism. In short, the NMRRS is a coalition of ordinary citizens taking extraordinary, direct action to redress racial segregation a.k.a. helping those that have been denied fair housing, be made as whole as possible. It is the brainchild of Richard Rothstein (author of Color of Law) but it is not just him at work.
Who's already in?
This is no fly-by-night crew. The steering committee for NMRRS includes:
- Michael Ansara, former executive director of Massachusetts Fair Share
- Janell Byrd-Chichester, director of NAACP-LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute
- Maria Echaveste, president and CEO of the Opportunity Institute
- Debra Gore-Mann, president and CEO of the Greenlining Institute
- Rev. Amy Laura Hall, Professor at Duke University Divinity School
- Damon Hewitt, executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
- Jeffrey Hicks, REALTOR® and past president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers
- Cashauna Hill, a civil rights lawyer, executive director of the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, and board member of the National Fair Housing Alliance
- Olati Johnson, professor at Columbia University Law School and chair of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council
- Betsy Julian, civil rights lawyer and founder of the Inclusive Communities Project of Dallas
- Amanda Lankerd, CEO of the Battle Creek Area Association of REALTORS® (MI)
- Noerena Limon, senior vice president of public policy and industry relations at the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Brokers
- Tiffany Manuel, founder, president, and CEO of TheCaseMade, a social justice leadership training organization.
- Josie Mooney, partner at Democracy Partners and director of organizations at People’s Action
- Kori Schneider-Peragine, senior administrator of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council’s Inclusive Communities Program
- Natosha Reid Rice, global diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at Habitat for Humanity International, and minister for public life at All Saints Episcopal Church in Atlanta
- Mary Richardson-Lowry, executive committee chair for The Chicago Community Trust
- Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law, distinguished fellow of the Economic Policy Institute, and a senior fellow (emeritus) at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund
- Nureed Saeed, community activist, interior designer, and owner of NU Interiors
- Ted Shaw, former president of the NAACP-LDF, and director of the Center for Civil Rights at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law
- Phil Tegeler, executive director of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council
- Sarah Watson, associate counsel at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
What is NMRRS doing to further fair housing and why should this matter to real estate professionals?
As a summary from the video, the NMRRS will broadly have campaigns to:
• Improve the resources of low-income segregated neighborhoods,
• Resist massive displacement from uncontrolled gentrification,
• Create housing opportunities for economically and racially diverse populations in segregated white neighborhoods, and
• Stabilize desegregation in neighborhoods where it exists (control suburban white flight).
Specific examples of these initiatives as discussed in the video include:
+ Advocating for property tax assessment equity and refunds in inequitable instances,
+ Pushing for a self-auditing body for real estate professionals,
+ Campaigning to create a more equitable neighborhood rating system that moves beyond school test scores, which have been proven to be racially biased,
+ Increasing creation of downpayment grants from institutions that have historically participated in real estate inequity and segregation (including realty firms, banks, law offices,
developers, and municipalities),
+ And much more.
What Can You Do to Make Fair Housing Your Superpower?
If you have been wondering how you, your office, and even the clubs that you belong to can take concrete steps to ensure housing is realized as fair for all and redress instances of subpar treatment, then I encourage you to join the mailing list for the NMRRS. And, if you are looking for a good cause to donate to during Fair Housing month (and beyond), the NMRRS needs your donations of $1000.00 and more so please gather those in your offices and associations to support this needed new movement (click here to donate). How amazing it would be if we, real estate professionals, could help the NMRRS reach their 2021 funding goal of $500,000 before April/Fair Housing Month ends!
Plus, are you virtually attending the Housing Solution Summit in May where Richard Rothstein and Bryan Greene (of NAR) will speak? This summit has no fee options and will discuss more solutions to make homeownership equitable if this topic is "up your lane".
Download today your complimentary (aka NO FEE but for a limited time so hurry) copy of my new book, How to Be an Anti-Racist Real Estate Pro.
Want more tips from fellow real estate pros (like Leigh Brown, Kim Hayden, and Sarah Johnston to name just a few) to help you become even more resilient in real estate? Grab our new book, Resilient Real Estate Women, by clicking here.
Want more of the best practices of our nation's top producers? Grab your copy of the short read, Profit with Your Personality and, the classic, 5-star rated workbook, Plan to Win, to transform their real estate sales game plan. Or, get your "training on" with these on-demand classes.
Want more of the best practices of our nation's top producers? Grab your copy of the short read, Profit with Your Personality and, the classic, 5-star rated workbook, Plan to Win, to transform their real estate sales game plan. Or, get your "training on" with these on-demand classes.
Here's to your success!
#LearnWithDrLee
