Joint Board Matter With Lee District Supervisor Rodney Lusk 

Background:

It is the policy of Fairfax County to provide housing throughout the county, regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, marital status, familial status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, elderliness, military status, or source of funds. In order to determine whether laws barring housing discrimination are being violated, the Fairfax Office of Human Rights and Equity Programs (OHREP) collects housing discrimination data through its fair housing testing program. In 2019, Fairfax County entered into a contract with the Equal Rights Center (ERC) to provide email, phone, and in-person testing services in the rental, lending and sales housing markets. Through the course of the contract, from June 2019 to March 2021, the ERC conducted and analyzed 122 tests in the county. These tests were done on the basis of race, national origin and disability. The Fairfax County Human Rights Commission recently provided a summary of the results of these tests in the Fair Housing Rental, Sales, Lending Testing Report.

The rental tests showed housing providers were more likely to give White testers more detailed information, respond more frequently to their messages and offer more favorable terms than to their matched pair counterparts.  It was also clear that certain housing providers lack the training to provide the same level of treatment to Deaf individuals as they do to hearing individuals.

The numbers reported for the lending and sales markets were more troubling.  They clearly show that historical practices of segregating neighborhoods through steering or offering no or less favorable loans to Black individuals is still very much an issue today. 

Motion:

I move that OHREP review its enforcement program and provide the Board with a plan to enhance its education and training activities that includes an ongoing review of the effectiveness of these activities.