Secretary of State Harriet Windsor
Celebrates
Fair Housing Month and 36 Years of Delaware Fair Housing Law
April 5, 2005
Dover - Secretary of State Harriet Smith Windsor remembers what her mother, an office manager at a federal savings and loan in Millsboro, told her about discrimination when she was growing up: "There's still a lot of work to be done," her mother said.
Years later, "My roots have come full cycle," Windsor said
Tuesday, as she celebrated Delaware's 36-year battle to end
housing discrimination. Windsor and a slate of federal and state
officials added their signatures to a proclamation by Governor
Ruth Ann Minner recognizing April as Fair Housing Month in
Delaware. The ceremony marked the passage of the Delaware Fair
Housing Act in 1969. That law followed on the heels of the
Federal Fair Housing Law, part of the Civil Rights Act of
1968.
Officials reinforced a dual theme: tremendous progress in passing and enforcing fair housing laws, and the need for even more vigilance in routing out discrimination.
"Our work is not done," said Milton Pratt, Region III administrator of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, based in Philadelphia. He hailed the fact that the national rate for minority homeownership has reached 51 percent. Yet "we must remain steadfast as we celebrate President [Lyndon] Johnson's dream" of fair housing embodied in the Civil Rights Act.
"Housing discrimination is truly alive and well," noted Juana Fuentes-Bowles, director of the Delaware State Department's Human Relations Division. She noted that the division, in conjunction with the state Human Relations Commission, had addressed 135 fair housing complaints last year alone. The division's goal, she explained, is to handle cases rapidly, since "all people have a right to shelter."
The 36-year-old Delaware law is far-reaching. It bars housing bias based on race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex, marital status, familial status, age, or handicap. Many cases are race-based, but not all.
One unusual example is the testimony of New Castle County real estate broker Richard Tonge. When osteoarthritis began to limit his ability to drive prospective buyers to see homes for sale, he established an Internet-based business. He ran into trouble when some builders insisted he be on site to register potential buyers. Tonge appealed to the Human Relations Commission, which mediated the claim of discrimination based on disability. Now Tonge emails or faxes the registrations; builders are happy with the arrangement, and "everybody got what they wanted," he explained.
"I can tell you that the system works," Tonge said.
Calvin Christopher, chair of the Delaware Human Relations Commission, praised the federal/state partnership that has vigorously enforced the fair housing rules. The commission "is going to become even more visible in the coming months," he stressed.
On April 18, the Human Relations Commission and the Division of Human Relations will hold the 12th Annual Fair Housing Conference at the Sheraton Dover Hotel. The program features Gordon L. Joyner, who litigated Herron v. Blackwell (1990), the first lawsuit to go to trial under the federal Fair Housing Act, and Delaware State Senator Margaret Rose Henry.
For more information about the 12th Annual Fair Housing Conference, call (302) 577-5050, (302) 739-4567, or (302) 856-5331 or visit www.state.de.us/hr/.
