Key to Fair Housing

Training for Property Staff

By Mike Sederholm on Jul 27, 2017 in News

Shortly after the passing of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, Congress expanded the Civil Rights Act to protect equal access to housing resources. Fair housing protection is a crowning achievement of the civil rights movement.

Fair housing legislation makes it illegal to impede access to housing based on race, religion, national origin, sex, (and as later amended), handicap and family status. Nearly every state has expanded protection for residents beyond the national Civil Rights Act.

State housing agencies and advocacy groups often test property managers and real estate agents for fair housing compliance. It’s unlawful for an agent steer a prospect to or away from a unit based on perception or opinion of prospective residents. Advertisements can’t target only one segment of the community or purposefully omit another community.

Yardi eLearning streamlines access to role-based training resources for more than 44,000 active users. It replaces traditional classroom instruction with web-based, interactive courses and live webinar events.

Users can access Yardi eLearning from any device with Internet access, including tablets and smartphones. Patty Evans, manager of the Yardi eLearning team, announced the addition of new fair housing curriculum to Yardi’s library of property management training courses.

“Proper training makes leasing agents aware of fair housing concerns they may not even be conscious of – it’s not always easy for an agent to know when they may be treading into fair housing territory. That’s why fair housing training is so important for every real estate management company,” says Evans.

Yardi eLearning fair housing courses and learning materials cover topics applicable to every state and residential real estate market, including the affordable housing and PHA industries.

Yardi eLearning can also specialize content for states or cities. For example, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs now lists Yardi eLearning in the approved fair housing trainers directory.

Fair housing trainers can further leverage the features of the Yardi online learning platform. Automated tasks include scheduling email notifications, course recertifications and integration with HR software. The platform tracks and records course completions and other employee training activities.

Visit yardi.com/eLearning or call 800.866.1144 to schedule a demonstration.