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Kenan Hosts Fair Housing Expert Training

Fair Housing Expert Training
Photo: Coty Montag

Hosted at Kenan this month, the Thurgood Marshall Institute held their Fair Housing Expert Training. The Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multidisciplinary center within the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Launched in 2015, the Institute plays to LDF’s litigation strengths and brings critical capabilities to the fight for racial justice, including research and targeted advocacy campaigns. The Institute also houses LDF’s Archives—a collection of materials chronicling the legal history of the Civil Rights Movement.

The three-day training brought in participants, instructors and speakers from around the country. Coty Montag, Thurgood Marshall Institute Project Manager and Senior Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense Fund said, “We are pleased to host this Housing Expert Training to bring together new and established experts in a variety of fields, as well as a group of experienced civil rights attorneys, to discuss best practices for litigating Fair Housing Act (FHA) cases. Fifty-one years after the passage of the FHA, housing discrimination is still a pervasive problem in communities across the nation. We thank the Kenan Institute for Ethics for hosting this important training, which we believe will help civil rights advocates to be prepared to root out and challenge discriminatory housing practices.”

Training presenter and participant Allan Parnell has been a Fair Housing Expert in cases for over 15 years and is the Vice President of the Cedar Grove Institute for Sustainable Communities.  Parnell summarized the current climate:

The fight for fair housing continues across the country.  Local governments and individuals continue to deny housing opportunities because of someone’s race or disability or family status.  This meeting provided the opportunity for attorneys who litigate fair housing claims and expert witnesses who provide evidence supporting the claims an opportunity to build the pool of fair housing expert witnesses.

Learn more about the Thurgood Marshall Institute on their website.

Fair Housing Expert Training
Photo: Coty Montag