Agenda Summary 2007 Equal Opportunity - Cultural Diversity Committee National Association of REALTORS® Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo Omni Shoreham Palladian Room, Main Floor Wednesday, May 16, 2007 10:00 AM - 12:00 PMChair:Bonnie Casper, Cincinnati, OH Vice Chair:John Yen Wong, San Francisco, CA Committee Liaison:Kay Watson, Centennial, CO Committee Executive:Kyle Lambert London, Fred Underwood, Washington, DCI. Call To Order
Ownership Disclosure Policy
1. When NAR has an ownership interest in an entity and a member has an ownership interest* in that same entity, such member must disclose the existence of his or herownership interest prior to speaking to a decision making body on any matter involving that entity.
2. If a member has personal knowledge that NAR is considering doing business with an entity in which a member has any financial interest**, orwith an entity in which the member serves in a decision-making capacity, then such member must disclose the existence of his or her financial interest or decision making role prior to speaking to a decision making body about the entity.
3. If amember has a financial interest in, or serves in a decision-making capacity for, any entity that the member knows is offering competing products and services as those offered by NAR, then such member must disclose the existence of his or her financial interest or decision-making role prior to speaking to a decision making body about an issue involving those competing products and services.
After making the necessary disclosure, a member may participate in the discussion and vote on the matterunless that member has a conflict of interest as defined below.
Conflict of Interest Policy
A member of any of NAR’s decision making bodies will be considered to have a conflict of interest whenever that member:
1. Is a principal, partner or corporate officer of a business providing products or services to NAR or in a business being considered as a provider of products or services ("Business"); or
2. Holds a seat on the board of directors of the Business unless the person’s only relationship to the Business is service on such board of directors as NAR’s representative; or
3. Holds an ownership interest of more than 1 percent of the Business.
Members with a conflict of interest must immediately disclose their interest at the outset of any discussions by a decision making body pertaining to the Business or any of its products or services. Such members may not participate in the discussion relating to that Business other thanto respond to questions asked of them by other members of the body. Furthermore, no member with a conflict of interest may vote on any matter in which the member has a conflict of interest, including votes to block or alter the actions of the body in order to benefit the Business in which they have an interest. ________________________________________ *Ownership interest is defined as the cumulative holdings of the member, the member’s spouse, children, siblings and to any trust, corporation or partnership in which any of the foregoing individuals is an officer or director, or owns, in the aggregate, at least 50% of the (a) beneficial interest (if a trust), (b) stock (if a corporation) or (c) partnership interests (if a partnership).
**Financial interest means any interest involving money, investments, credit or contractual rights.
Committee Goals
Purpose:To develop policy promoting equal opportunity in housing and diversity within the real estate industry. To identify the concerns and needs of minority members and to assist in the development of actions to address those concerns and needs. To develop and oversee national fair housing and diversity partnership agreements with HUD. To coordinate the Association's activities to increase diversity within the real estate profession and the NAR membership. To serve as ambassadors to minority real estate organizations in the United States.To identify diversityand fair housing education needs and goals. To promote changes in real estate business practices to reflect the growing cultural diversity within the United States. To share diversity knowledge, expertise, analysis and information with other NAR committees as appropriate.2007 Goals: 1. Recommend actions to increase diversity in Association leadership.
2. Identify and make available fair housing tools that REALTORS® and REALTOR® Associations need tobe well-positioned regarding fair housing enforcement activities.
3. Evaluate new materials and delivery for the At Home with Diversity course. Review new models for course distribution including the new on-line course and partnerships with other organizations. Review methods to provide more detail on specific cultures to members.
4. Continue the Diversity grants and pilot test models to provide customize assistance to state associations.
5. Develop a coalition with threenational minority based real estate organizations focused on public policy advocacy.
Actions to be taken to achieve goals:
1. Review progress on the recommendations of the Diversity in Leadership Working Group. Provideinput to staff regarding leadership development at NAR.
2. Identify education needs in response to recent and on-going fair housing cases; meet with private fair housing organizations.
3. Meet with CRS, CRB, WCR and International toreview success of the new course materials and shared marketing, review new on-line course, develop new partnerships with other organizations, and identify new training needs focused on providing details on specific cultures..
4. Review successand outcomes of programs funded through 2006. Discuss and prepare changes to the criteria and recommendations for additional funding if needed. Develop models for customized assistance for state associations.
5. Review recent interaction and cooperation with the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, and the Asian Real Estate Association of America. Invite representatives of the organizations to meet with committee leaders,and attend committee meetings, develop shared actions on issues such as predatory lending and affordable housing.
Expected Outcome:
1. Refinements to diversity in leadership activities. Recommendations regarding NAR leadership development activities.
2. REALTOR® Associations have ready access to templates and materials to enable rapid response to fair housing enforcement actions in their community.
3. New models developed to deliver course material and include customized information such as specifics on different cultures.
4. Report on the success of the diversity grants approved, model customized state assistance program created.
5. Shared advocacy II. Approval of Previous Meeting's MinutesIII. Report from the Equal Opportunity Cultural Diversity Forum
What is the fundamental issue? Visitable Housing is designed and built to allow guests with mobility impairments to visit someone in their home without architectural barriers impeding their ability to move in and out of the home or use facilities a guest, such as for dinner, wouldneed. Such housing also makes it easier for residents to adapt their house as they age and develop mobility impairments. A significant number of local governments have required or encouraged new housing to be built with visitable features. There are somenational voices calling for greater inclusion of visitable features in new homes as well.
I'm a Realtor®. What does this mean to my business? Housing which is visitable may be more attractive to buyers who have friends and relatives with mobility impairments. The costs associated with adding basic visitable features, such as no-threshold steps, wider doors, and larger guest bathrooms, add little to the cost of housing at the time of construction. Such housing could be marketed as visitable to buyers.
NAR supports the Fair Housing Act's requirement that new multi-family housing be accessible to persons with disabilities. NAR opposes actions which place liability for incorrectly constructed housing on subsequentowners and REALTORS® marketing the housing. NAR has no policy concerning visitable housing and at this time no legislation has been introduced.V. Issue Update - Limited English Guidance from HUD In responseto executive order 13166, issued by President Clinton in August 2000, HUD undertook developing standards for recipients of federal financial assistance to take reasonable steps to meet their statutory and regulatory obligations to ensure that Limited English Proficiency (LEP) persons have meaningful access to HUD programs and activities. The statutory and regulatory obligations are derived from Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. HUD issued proposed guidance in December of 2003.
The guidance provides a test so that organizations receiving HUD funds can determine whether they are required to provide various additional services including translators and translated documents to LEP persons. The guidance goes into effect on March 7, 2007. Below are some answers to frequently asked questions. However, much of the guidance is still vague in many respects and participants in the February 28th workshop received a number of “we will get back to you” or “we will look into that” answers.
Frequently Asked Questions Adapted from information available from www.lep.gov and guidance provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.Q. Who is a Limited English Proficient (LEP) individual?A. Individuals who do not speak English as their primary language and who have a limited ability to read, speak, write, or understand English can be limited English proficient, or "LEP." These individuals may be entitled language assistance withrespect to a particular type or service, benefit, or encounter.Q. What are the relevant laws concerning language access for LEP individuals?A. Federal laws particularly applicable to language access include Title VI of the CivilRights Act of 1964, and the Title VI regulations, prohibiting discrimination based on national origin, and Executive Order 13166 issued in 2000. Many individual federal programs, states, and localities also have provisions requiring language services forLEP individuals. The LEP Executive Order (Executive Order 13166) says that people who are LEP should have meaningful access to federally conducted and federally funded programs and activities. Executive Order 13166 requires all agencies that provide federal financial assistance to issue guidance on how recipients of that assistance can take reasonable steps to provide meaningful access consistent with Title VI and the Title VI regulations.Q. What is a recipient of federal financial assistance?A. Federal financial assistance includes grants, training, use of equipment, donations of surplus property, and other assistance. Subrecipients are also covered, when federal funds are passed from one recipient to a subrecipient. Recipientsof federal funds range from state and local agencies, to nonprofits and other organizations. Title VI covers a recipient's entire program or activity. This means all parts of a recipient's operations are covered. This is true even if only one part of therecipient receives the federal assistance.Q. What must be done?1)The Guidance requires recipients of HUD funds to implement a plan that includes the translation of “vital” written materials (determinedessentially by the importance of the document to communicating information to the individual that it would essentially be “unfair” for them not to know). Examples would include but are not limited to contracts, leases, eviction notices, and citations. However, it was suggested at the HUD briefing that even a notice that there will be no hot water or heat for a period of time would require translation.2)The Guidance requires access to oral interpreters on a timely basis when such interpretation services are needed and reasonable in order to ensure LEP persons have meaningful access to HUD programs and activities.Q. What HUD programs are implicated?Any HUD program that directly funds an organization or activity such as CDBG, HOME, Public Housing, Section 202, Section 811, Project Based Section 8, etc. HUD has only discussed a couple of instances that are not implicated. FHA mortgage insurance as long as no direct federal funding accompanies the transaction (such as American Dream Downpayment Assistance). HUD also said that section 8 voucher or certificate landlords are not covered, only the agencies that administer the program. HUD also suggested that low income housing tax credit projectsQ. Who will enforce the LEP rules?A. In the case of HUD programs, HUD will enforce LEP rules through the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO). Most federal agencies have an office that is responsible for enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. To the extent that a recipient's actions are inconsistent with their obligations under Title VI, then such agencies will take the necessary corrective steps. HUD maintains that there is no private right of action to enforce LEP.Q. What are recipients of federal funds required to do to meet LEP requirements?A. Recipients and federal agencies are required to take reasonable steps to ensure meaningful access to their programs and activities by LEP persons. While designed to be a flexible and fact-dependent standard, the starting point is an individualized assessment that balances the following four factors (four factor test):1. The number or proportion of LEP persons eligible to be served or likely to be encountered by the program or grantee; 2. The frequency with which LEP individuals come in contact with the program; 3. The nature and importance of the program, activity, or service provided by the program to people's lives; and 4. The resources available to the grantee/recipient or agency, and costs. As indicated above, the intent of this guidance is to find a balance that ensures meaningful access by LEP persons to critical services while not imposing undue burdens on small business, or small nonprofits.Q. Do recipients of federal funds have to submit written language access plans to the Department of Justice or to their federal funding agency each year?A. No. While planning is an important part of ensuring that reasonable steps are taken to provide meaningful access to LEP individuals seeking services, benefits, information, or assertion of rights, there is no blanket requirement that the plans themselves be submitted to federal agencies providing federal financial assistance. In certain circumstances, such as in complaint investigations or compliance reviews, recipients may be required to provide to federal agencies a copy of any plan created by the recipient. HUD however encourages all those who are subject to the LEP guidance to develop a plan.Q. What are the Safe Harbors?For translated documents:Size of language group recommended provision ofwritten language assistance 1,000 ormore in the eligible translated vital documents population in the market area or among current beneficiaries.More than 5% of the eligible translated vital documents population or beneficiaries and more than 50 in number.More than 5% of the eligible translated written notice of right to population or beneficiaries and receive free oral interpretation of 50 or less in number documents.5% or less of the eligible population no written translation is required or beneficiaries and less than 1,000 in number.There is no safe harbor for providing interpretive services.In other words, for critical information, even if there is only one LEP person in the group, interpretive services may be required.Q. What is HUD doing?A. HUD is translating a number of its key documents into several languages including Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Amharic, Korean, and French. These translations are ongoing and will be available over the next several months. However, HUD is not translating outside documents. HUD officials stated that translation and interpretation costs will be considered a “project expense” however they acknowledged that based on rent caps,such costs will not likely be reimbursed.For More Compliance Information visit: http://www.hud.gov/offices/fheo/promotingfh/lep.cfm
VI. At Home with Diversity - Updates and discussion on partners Update on At Home with Diversity Course- Number of Certificates Awarded: To date more than 23,500 students have received the AHWD Certification.
- Affiliate partnerships: The partnerships with the other designations are going well. CIPS, CRB, CRS, and PMN designees continue to obtain credit toward their designations as well as obtain the AHWD Certification.
- At Home with Diversity at NAR Meetings: The CourseOversight Group will be discussing options for various diversity course offerings at both the Midyear and Annual meetings, including At Home with Diversity for agents, Managing Diversity for the Broker, Owner, Manager and the diversity course in development for association executives and association staff. The premise behind this discussion is to keep the course offerings at major meetings current and relevant to the members and associations we serve
- At Home with Diversity On-line: The AHWDOn-line course launched earlier this year through Realtor University. The group will be looking at ways to promote this new option.
- Diversity Courses for Brokers & AE’s:The Course Oversight Group will be looking at ideas for broadening diversity education to other audiences (Brokers, AE’s). Since the agent course is running well on its own, we will look into turning our focus to other groups who are currently underserved in this area of education.
- Expanding & Modernizing Current Course: Course evaluations have shown (since course inception) that students request more “cultural specifics” when conducting business with those from different countries or cultural backgrounds.In the past we have stayed away from giving course attendees cultural specifics, and rather referred them to other sources for the information (e.g. Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands), much like REALTORS® do when clients ask for demographic information on an area (be the source of the source). The reasoning for doing this was to prevent creating additional stereotypes by generalizing about specific cultures. In our dealings with two of the minority real estate associations, AAREA and NAHREP, we have learnedthat they have developed courses which specialize in marketing to their “key” clients. We would like to open the floor for discussion on whether a partnership with AAREA and NAHREP would be mutually beneficial for offering additional trainingto our members. In addition to this idea, we are also going to take a look at the budget and determine if we could hire a consultant to modernize the current AHWD course. In addition to modernizing the power point presentation with photographs, like theon-line course, we will look into having the materials available to instructors and sponsors on a password protected website.VII. Report on Activities with NAREB, NAHREP and AREAA
