Important Fair Housing Notice for Seattle
The City of Seattle has recently adopted a new ordinance that requires all real estate professionals (including brokers and property managers) within the city limits to prominently display a fair housing poster in their place of business. The poster is available at http://www.seattle.gov/civilrights/outreach.htm under the link for “Housing Issues.
Absolutely absurd.
Fair Housing cannot be achieved by heavy-handed enforcement by governmental agencies.
Fairness must come for the heart.
Hey Phil,
How are things in Boise?
Yeah, I know it might sound kind-of heavy handed. Here in WA, we just passed a state rule that adds sexual orientation as a protected class. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page for the easy matrix:
http://www.hum.wa.gov/
The other day, I had two students in one of my classes who rolled their eyes and made disgusting noises when sexual orientation as a protected class came up during our talk on Fair Housing.
There are all kinds of variables in a person’s life that affect a person’s actions. For example:
Family
Religion or a choice to be non-religious
culture
school
larger community
socio-econ status
gender and cultural influence on gender
and so on…
What I’m trying to say is, we all have a different “heart.” Some folks do not need a law to do what Fair Housing requires, as you pointed out.
Our Human Rights office continues to see an increase in Fair Housing violations in the practice of real estate, sounds like it is mostly tenant-related towards people with disabilities, hence the harsher rules.
We all have different “hearts” so justice tries to bring some balance into the world.
🙂
Jillayne,
Your response was poignant – and left me at a loss for words…well, for a moment. 🙂
This discussion gets at the core elements of civil rights struggles globally – not just here in Seattle.
On one level, I absolutely agree with Phil. It *is* absurd that legislation must be enacted to help see that everyone is treated with basic human decency. But I also know that Phil lives in a state where the majority of voters do not recognize the inherent worth of every human being.
So Phil, as Jillyane said, this is why – today – legislation like this must exist. I’d like to think that in a not-to-distant tomorrow, every single person will wake up and realize that we’re all really more alike than different.