Leadership Guides
We are about to place an order for the 2024 Leadership Guides and would like to get an estimate from you to see how many guides you may need to distribute to your leadership. Here is a link to the 2023 Leadership Guide so you can get a reference. Please email Jon Houser the number of guides you would like to receive to ensure we provide you with enough copies.
Texas REALTORS® Party and Leadership Summit Registration
Please join us July 26 at 2pm for the Texas REALTORS® Party and Leadership Summit Registration Process Webinar, this will include information about how to register, what to register for, and important hotel information for the event.
Info from the Texas Workforce Commission
Lori had the opportunity to chat with folks from the Texas Workforce Commission. Please see their email to her below, with opportunities for you to bring in agency experts (those who investigate complaints) on fair housing and employment discrimination. Please feel free to reach out to them directly if you would like to have them present to your members (at no cost). We are considering opportunities here at the state level as well. They did tell Lori they like to travel and they’ve had great success presenting to local apartment associations so you may want to pursue this locally.
It was great chatting with you yesterday. Our stated mission is clear “to reduce discrimination in employment and housing through education and enforcement of state and federal laws.” But enforcement is not the way to achieve our vision, to achieve that education and training will make the biggest difference. This past year, TWC began an aggressive outreach effort to educate and train as many Texans as possible about fair housing. To help achieve this, we have partnered with several state and local organizations, we made much progress in the past year but there’s more to be done.
Based on our conversation yesterday; TWC agrees that partnering with your local associations is the best approach to assist your association. The following are some of the Webinar training we currently offer:
Fair Housing Overview
This webinar provides a general overview of the important aspects of the Federal and Texas Fair Housing Act. The topics covered include protected classes, ways to recognize issues/discriminatory practices, understanding disparate impact, and exemptions to the Acts.
Reasonable Accommodations and Modifications
This webinar provides specific training regarding reasonable accommodations and modifications within the scope of housing. The topics include defining disability, recognizing requests for reasonable accommodations/modifications, how to respond to reasonable accommodation and modification requests, design and construction issues, and assistance animals.
That said, we’re more than happy to provide onsite training, it is important for us to get to know the organizations we partner with. In some cases, onsite training is the preferred method of instruction.
Please pass my contact information to your local associations, they can contact me or Lead Investigator Keith Cooper Cc on this email.
Respectfully,
Patrick W. Williams
Manager, Fair Housing Investigations
Texas Workforce Commission, Civil Rights Division
(737) 279-3241