To help raise public awareness of local, state and national fair housing laws’ success in eliminating housing discrimination, the Palm Beach County Office of Equal Opportunity, in conjunction with the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, Inc. and the F. Malcolm Cunningham, Sr. Bar Association will present a day-long Fair Housing Law Symposium on Friday, April 25 7:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. at the West Palm Beach Marriot, 1001 Okeechobee Blvd. in West Palm Beach.
The symposium will feature John P. Relman, Esq., of Washington, D.C., who is nationally known for his litigation of fair housing and fair lending cases. He obtained a $2.4 million jury verdict for housing discrimination against families with children in Timus v. William J. Davis, Inc. Mr. Relman has also written and lectured extensively in the areas of fair housing and fair lending law and is the author of Housing Discrimination Practice Manual.
Another featured presenter is Professor Robert G. Schwemm, the Ashland Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky. Professor Schwemm has published a treatise entitled Housing Discrimination: Law and Litigation, as well as articles in the Harvard Civil Rights Law Review, George Washington Law Review and the Yale Law and Policy Review. He has litigated cases in the U. S. Supreme Court, the most recent of which was Meyer v. Holley in 2003.
The featured luncheon keynote speaker is Professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Associate Professor of Politics and African American Studies at Princeton University. Professor Harris-Lacewell is the author of an award winning book: Barbershops. Bibles and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought, which was published in 2004. Other speakers include: JoAnn Nesta Burnett, Esq. of Becker and Poliakoff and Pamela Guerrier, Esq., Manager Palm Beach County Office of Equal Opportunity.
A concurrent training track will be presented on Florida’s Accessibility Code for Building Construction and the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Fair Housing Act. This track is designed for architects, engineers, developers and builders, code enforcement officials and disability advocates. The training will feature presentations by Larry M. Schneider, AIA of Miami, Florida and Angel Watson, Caring and Sharing Center for Independent Living, as well as Pinellas and Pasco Counties.
The Accessibility training is divided into 2 separate tracks. Participants may attend either the morning session or the afternoon session. Admission to the Symposium or the Accessibility training is free, but preregistration is required. The Registration deadline is April 14, 2008.
April marks the 40th anniversary of the enactment of the federal Fair Housing Law, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed, national origin, sex, familial status and handicap and encouraging fair housing opportunities for all citizens. Additionally, Palm Beach County’s Fair Housing Ordinance also bans discrimination based on age, marital status, sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.
For additional information on either the Symposium or the Accessibility training, please contact Pamela Guerrier at the Palm Beach County Office of Equal Opportunity at (561) 355-2558 or visit the OEO website at: www.pbcgov.com/equalopportunity.
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