‘We all must know our rights’: City of Orlando hosts annual Fair Housing Fair

ORLANDO, Fla. — It’s a fair to promote fairness. Dozens of organizations came together Saturday morning at Grand Avenue Park in Orlando to help bring awareness about fair housing.

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‘We all must know our rights,” said Kimberly Rankin, the City’s Human Relations Manager. “We are seeing a lot of landlords that are implementing policies that affect families that have minor children. we highly encourage landlords and citizens, if you’re unsure how a policy should be implemented, please contact our office.”

From free credit checks to mortgage counseling and even fair housing training, the plan is to make sure everyone knows and understands the importance of fair housing initiatives. “

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You may not be dealing with a fair housing situation, but you may have family members or community members,” said Bakari Burn, City of Orlando Commissioner. “The more people who are on with the information we can spread through the word of mouth.”

Valet Roof, a long-time Orlando resident, brought her daughter who’s looking for her first home. “She has been struggling for a while to get an apartment,” said Roof. “When she comes to events like these, she will get an opportunity to learn and take it from there.”

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Organizations and volunteers also highlighted the importance of the event for the immigrant and other underserved communities, and for those impacted by severe weather.

“Our organization has just started a disaster hotline, so people who were impacted by hurricane Ian can give us a call, send us an email, and we can see how we can assist them,” said Nickole Durbin-Félix, with the Latino Justice. “We just want to make sure people are not discriminated against because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, nationality,” said Roberto Cruz, with Latino Justice.

The city of Orlando receives over 1,000 calls every year regarding housing discrimination. If you need their help, you can reach out at Orlando.gov/humanrelations.

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