New CRLP Session Beginning!!!! ​The Maryland Commission on Civil Rights Leadership Program (CRLP) is a free three-day academy designed to provide training and insight to emerging leaders by fostering a comprehensive and supportive educational environment wherein program participants will engage with experienced Civil Rights leaders, scholars, and practitioners in order to learn more about career paths and opportunities in the field.   The program will be held virtually  on March 2-5, 2023.  Topics covered will be, but not limited to:   Training on Maryland's Anti-Discrimination Laws and MCCR Enforcement Legal Overview/Investigative Practices Civil Rights Career Forum​ For more information, click HERE Victim of Discrimination? Training & Partnerships HOME      ABOUT MCCR      SERVICES      PUBLICATIONS      EVENTS      PRESS      CONTACT US

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New MEILP Sessions Beginning!!!! The Maryland Equity and Inclusion Leadership Program (MEILP) is offered jointly by the Schaefer Center for Public Policy at The University of Baltimore and the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights. MEILP It is ideal for experienced and developing professionals from public, nonprofit, and private organizations who want to design, lead, and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in their organizations. The program is: committed to helping participants and their organizations become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive combines asynchronous and live online instruction, with peer group interaction comprehensive and academically grounded job relevant and requires participants to complete a  project focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion 8 weeks in length Learn More and Apply Online Applications are accepted online until November 30, 2022 at http://meilp.ubalt.edu Victim of Discrimination? Training & Partnerships HOME      ABOUT MCCR      SERVICES      PUBLICATIONS      EVENTS      PRESS      CONTACT US

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D.C. Wins Nation's Largest Ever $10 Million Settlement in Housing Voucher Discrimination Case

 

Three real estate firms and several of their executives are required to pay Washington, D.C. a historic $10 million settlement and to stop managing property in the city forever for allegedly denying access to rentals or imposing additional, and illegal, requirements on low-income applicants. The settlement is the largest civil penalty in a housing discrimination case in U.S. history, according to D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D), who announced it at a news conference Thursday.

The attorney general’s office filed suit against the three real estate firms — DARO Management Services, DARO Realty and Infinity Real Estate — and several of their executives in 2020 for allegedly violating civil rights and consumer-protection laws meant to protect low-income renters who receive government assistance from housing discrimination. The D.C. attorney general’s office filed suit against them after finding that DARO illegally posted ads with discriminatory language and charged Section 8 voucher recipients extra fees. This was part of an ongoing crackdown on discrimination against voucher holders in the District.

Racine commented “This discrimination has perpetuated Jim Crow racism that pushes Black and Brown families out of certain areas of the District of Columbia.”

D.C. officials documented discriminatory practices at 15 buildings owned or operated by the companies throughout Wards 1, 2 and 3, concentrated in some of the District’s most affluent areas. Building managers that separate out applicants receiving government assistance in vouchers and other aid programs violate the city’s Human Rights Act, which bans source-of-income discrimination.

More than 30,000 Washingtonians rely on some form of government subsidy to supplement the cost of housing, according to the District. About 11,500 low-income households get aid through the federally backed Housing Choice Voucher Program, commonly known as Section 8 vouchers, which subsidize rent at homes not typically designated as affordable housing. Some 95% of D.C. Section 8 voucher holders are Black, and 79% are headed by women.

Read the October 20, 2022 Washington Post article.

 

Join us for these October events:

MAHC Membership Happy Hour w/CDN October 20, 2022 Union Craft Brewing 1700 W. 41st. St., Ste 420 Baltimore MD 21211 5:00 - 7:00pm

REGISTER NOW

MAHC October Brown Bag Lunch A Look at the State's Disability Housing Voucher Programs & How They Work October 27, 2022 via Zoom 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

REGISTER NOW

Maryland Affordable Housing Coalition 1212 York Road, Suite C 300, Lutherville, MD 21093 P: 443-758-6270  E: mdarden@mdahc.org

NEW STUDY FINDS LOW-INCOME HISPANIC RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION NOT HELPED BY VOUCHER PROGRAM SINCE THE 1960s

      This project analyzes the geographic mobility and residential segregation of Hispanic households in U.S. urban areas since the 1960s. The study - "Residential Mobility and Hispanic Segregation: Spatial Assimilation and the Concentration of Poverty, 1960–2014 by Yana Kucheva of the City College of New York - has just been published in HUD's CityScape journal (Volume 23, No. 2) dated 2021 and entitled "The Hispanic Housing Experience in the United States."

      The purpose was to examine changes over time in the determinants of mobility of households across neighborhoods and simulate segregation levels for the Hispanic population given different outcomes of household residential mobility. 

      The findings were that residential mobility patterns for the Hispanic population interact with existing patterns of segregation by both race/ethnicity and income to reproduce and deepen segregation, especially for low-income Hispanic households. 

Policy Implications

      This study’s findings indicate that the Housing Choice Voucher program, which tries to decrease the concentration of poverty through the provision of expanded housing options, will not reach its goals if the specific factors pushing Hispanic and African-American low-income households into much poorer neighborhoods than White households are overcome.

Methodology

      The study used a set of discrete choice models of neighborhood mobility along multiple dimensions and use the predictions of the discrete choice models to explicitly connect household level moves to aggregate patterns of residential segregation by both race/ethnicity and income. The sources of data were geocoded decennial census and American Community Survey data for the period between 1960 and 2014.

Download the Report

 Maryland U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron Establishes New Civil Rights Section

The U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Erek L. Barron, has established a new Civil Rights and Special Victims Section. Sarah A. Marquardt and Paul E. Budlow are Co-Chiefs of the new Section and Charles D. Austin is Deputy Chief. The office said that "This section will be a beacon for protecting civil rights and addressing victim-related crimes requiring specialized skills."

The Civil Rights and Special Victims Section will be staffed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys (AUSAs) from the Civil Division and Criminal Division.  The Criminal Division’s Major Crimes Section AUSAs and support staff will be merged into the new section.  The new section will continue Major Crimes’ strong focus on cases involving vulnerable victims and federal criminal civil rights enforcement, including child exploitation, human trafficking, and identity theft.   

The new section will also enforce a wide spectrum of federal civil rights laws in order to protect the constitutional rights of Marylanders and affirm equal opportunity for all, regardless of one’s race, ethnicity, sex, color, disability, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation.  The section’s civil rights work will focus on prosecuting hate crimes, eradicating discrimination in housing, preventing voter suppression, prohibiting discriminatory employment practices by state and local government employers, ensuring equal opportunity for Marylanders with disabilities, and investigating denials of equal protection to students by public schools and institutions of higher learning.

Read the October 7, 2022 US Attorney release.

 

Join Us for These Upcoming Webinars   October 20: Applying A Hispanic/Latinx Lens to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Initiatives With this month being Hispanic Heritage Month, many of us have attended events targeted toward sharing more about Hispanic/Latinx culture. These events are important to help us develop strategies for maintaining inclusive workspaces. Join MCCR and our esteemed speaker, Amanda Anastasia Paniagua, who has an extensive background in organizational development as it relates to cultural inclusion, as we facilitate a space for learning. HR professionals will have the opportunity to discuss strategies, share learning points, successes and organizational needs. Please bring your questions and insights to be shared in our larger discussions. Click here to register     November 2: Religious Accommodations and the Law   This interactive and informative workshop provides a current review of applicable Maryland law on the issue of religious accommodation in the workplace, current cases, and possible defenses. The session will included relevant statistics, discussion and information on religious/spiritual practices that may impact the workplace. This workshop will be presented by Glendora Hughes, Maryland Commission on Civil Rights- General Counsel.  Click here to register   December 7: Disability, Reasonable Accommodations and the Law The workshop includes an in-depth review of applicable disability-related laws and reasonable accommodations in the workplace. We will discuss relevant statistics, current trends as well as appropriate etiquette, language and behavior when interacting with persons with disabilities. This engaging workshop is packed full of helpful info and is open to the public! *Ideal for employers, managers, supervisors, human resource and employee relations staff in the private, non-profit and public sectors. This workshop will be presented by Glendora Hughes, Maryland Commission on Civil Rights- General Counsel.   Click here to register   For reasonable accommodation requests please contact Renee Hickman at: Renee.Hickman@maryland.gov no later than one week prior to the event.

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