FAIR HOUSING LEGAL SUPPORT CENTER

About the Center

The primary goal of The John Marshall Law School Fair Housing Legal Support Center is to educate the public about fair housing law and to provide legal assistance to those private or public organizations that seek to eliminate discriminatory housing practices. To accomplish the goal of eradicating housing discrimination, the Fair Housing Center also:

• Develops materials and brochures to educate the public about fair housing law. Among other materials, the Center has prepared a "Primer on Fair Housing Law," and "Attorneys Forms Relevant to a Fair Housing Case," to educate new lawyers on fair housing law and a "Layperson's Guide to Fair Housing Law".
• Conducts legal research, offers advice on trial strategy, and provides sample forms and briefs to help groups fight housing discrimination.
• Arranges conferences and mock trials, and develops courses and training materials. Videotapes, audiotapes and written brochures about the legal right to fair housing are aimed at educating lawyers about new developments in fair housing law.
• Provides civic associations, community-based organizations, the real estate industry, and private fair housing groups with legal information about rights and responsibilities under the fair housing laws.

The Fair Housing Legal Support Center runs the law school's Fair Housing Legal Clinic and a separate predatory lending program. The Fair Housing Legal Clinic allows students to represent victims of housing discrimination, while the predatory lending program allows students to counsel victims of aggressive and oppressive lending practices, as well as offering counseling in foreclosure prevention.

For assistance in planning a conference, securing a speaker from the Center, or to obtain copies of the Center materials, please contact Nadia Whiteside or Maria Chavez.

Discrimination in Senior Housing

"In October 2007, the Center completed a major research project for the Retirement Research Foundation. The study documents discrimination in senior housing. The final report outlines those areas of Illinois law regulating senior housing that may be inconsistent with the requirements of the Fair Housing Act. It summarizes a survey conducted in the Chicago area of seniors and senior housing providers about senior housing problems. It also analyses the results of testing done in the Chicago area to document racial, national origin, and disability discrimination in senior housing facilities.

The Final Report can be accessed by going to
http://www.jmls.edu/fairhousingcenter/commentary.shtml."

Commentary

The Center has published four issues of the Commentary on line. They can be retrieved through this website. The most recent issue was published in October 2008 and contains two original articles. One article by Professor Michael Seng discusses whether standing is required in filing administrative complaints under the 1988 Fair Housing Amendments Act. The other original article is by attorney Grant Nyhammer discusses notice requirements for defaulting tenants in eviction actions. The Commentary also reprints three previously published articles that are of current interest: Professor Kathleen Engles' article discussing the standing of cities to sue for predatory home lending practices under the Fair Housing Act, Professor Schwemm's article on why rental discrimination on the basis of race still exists, and Professor Seng's article on the Civil Rights struggle that occurred a generation ago in Cairo, Illinois.

Previous volumes of the Commentary contain the final report of the Center's research on discrimination in senior housing (vol. 3), discussions on discrimination based on religion and disability, the tax credit program, and mortgage foreclosure problems (vol. 2), and the computation and measurement of damages in fair housing actions (vol. 1).