Fair Housing Clinic Celebrates 30th Anniversary Featuring Pulitzer Prize Winner
Fair Housing Conference Heading link
UIC Law celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Fair Housing Legal Support Center and Clinic at this year’s Fair Housing Conference, featuring Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter, Bill Dedman. The conference took place on Thursday, September 7 and Friday, September 8, 2023 at UIC Law and featured a Law Review Symposium and celebratory reception.
For three decades, the law schools Fair Housing Legal Support Center & Clinic has played a pivotal role in educating the public about fair housing laws and tirelessly working towards the eradication of discriminatory housing practices. To commemorate this significant milestone, the conference hosted distinguished experts who dove into a wide range of topics, including:
- Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
- FHAPs an Essential Partner with FHIPS in the Fight for Fair Housing
- Discrimination in Home Appraisals – Establishing Discrimination
- Discrimination in Home Lending – Creating a United Response from the Feds
- Crime-Free Housing Ordinances and Criminal Background Checks
- Sexual Harassment and Violence in Housing
- Continuing Challenges in Providing Accessible Housing for Persons with Disabilities
Dedman delivered his keynote address in conjunction with the conference theme: “Fair Housing: Thirty-Five Years after ‘The Color of Money’ – The Struggle Continues.” The presentation highlighted the progress made since Dedman’s groundbreaking, “The Color of Money,” series shed light on racial discrimination by banks and savings and loan associations in middle-income Black neighborhoods.
The Law Review Symposium served as a platform for legal scholars, practitioners, and experts to share their insights and research on various aspects of fair housing. In addition to the symposium, the celebratory reception offered attendees a chance to reflect on the achievements of the Fair Housing Clinic over the past three decades.
About Fair Housing Legal Clinic Heading link
Established in 1993 by Professors F. Wills Caruso and Michael P. Seng, the Fair Housing Legal Clinic is one of the few law school clinics in the U.S. devoted exclusively to fair housing training and enforcement.
The Fair Housing Legal Clinic enable degree candidates to gain practical legal experience and bolster his or her resume at the same time. In addition to learning the substance of fair housing law, the clinic offers an opportunity to participate in federal court litigation and sometimes in state and administrative proceedings.
Student attorneys have a unique opportunity to participate in community outreach service and, along with clinic faculty and staff, regularly make general fair housing presentations to individuals, groups, and agencies, representing all protected classes under the Fair Housing Act, of their rights under the law.
About Bill Dedman Heading link
Bill Dedman is a Pulitzer and Peabody award‐winning investigative reporter, and bestselling author. He has spoken on fair housing and fair
lending issues for the National Association of Realtors, the Federal Reserve, HUD, and banking and real estate associations. Bill received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for his work at The Atlanta Journal‐Constitution on The Color of Money, his series on racial discrimination by banks and savings and loan associations in middle‐income Black neighborhoods.
The Color of Money led to expanded federal laws on disclosure of loan data, new financing for middle‐income homebuyers, and greater awareness of systemic discrimination. The articles in The Color of Money are online. Thirty years later, Bill was one of four lead reporters on Newsday’s undercover investigation of racial steering by real estate agents, Long Island Divided. The investigation, published in November 2019, revealed that Long Island’s largest residential real estate brokerages help reinforce racial segregation through illegal steering of customers. Long Island Divided led to a reckoning in the real estate industry, with new national training for agents, more testing of brokerages, and new state laws on fair housing. Newsday’s team received several national awards for their work, including a Peabody Award. Long Island Divided and its 40‐minutedocumentary film, Testing the Divide, are online.
Bill also uncovered the case of the reclusive copper heiress Huguette Clark in 2010, documenting her life in reports for NBC News. His nonfiction book, the No. 1 New York Times bestseller Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune, tells the true story of Clark and her father, the Gilded Age industrialist who founded Las Vegas. Bill is a frequent speaker for financial‐planning groups and charities on Empty Mansions and lessons learned from the Clark family’s failures in charitable giving. Bill has reported for The Associated Press, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe.