pages: SocialServiceHumanRelationsBoard/2005-01-27.pdf, 1
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SocialServiceHumanRelationsBoard | 2005-01-27 | 1 | Social Service Human Relations Board Minute of the Regular Meeting Thursday, January 27, 2005 CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL - President Franz called the meeting to order at 7:40pm. Present were Vice President Chen, Members Wasko, Flores-Witte, Bonta, Hollinger Jackson. Staff were Beaver and Brown. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - The December 8, 2004, special meeting minutes were approved. M/S Flores-Witte, Bonta, and unanimous with Hollinger Jackson abstaining. The January 6, 2005 Special Meeting minutes were approved. M/S Bonta, Flores-Witte and unanimous with President Franz abstaining. An introduction by Member Hollinger Jackson. She gave a brief description of her background and work experience. CITY COUNCIL REQUEST TO REVIEW SENTINEL FAIR HOUSING SURVEY AND REPORT - Executive Director of Sentinel Fair Housing (SFH) Mona Breed, provided an overview of her agency, and gave a presentation regarding the testing process, including training, use of forms, questionnaires, etc. Sentinel Fair Housing is a private Fair Housing agency that was started 20 years ago by the Urban League and civil rights leaders. Breed has been the Director for the past 10 years. Sentinel was selected to monitor Denny's Restaurants under consent decrees of the U.S. Court, and was selected by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to train testers for a national discrimination study by the Urban Institute. Breed stated that the standards and competencies of Sentinel are uncontested, and described the basic characteristics of discrimination testing: Testers: Testers are private citizens and members of various protected classes (race, religion, sexual orientation, disabled, etc.) Testers come from a variety of places, for example, Sentinel just trained 40 University of San Francisco law students as testers. Applicants are screened prior to training, including a criminal background check and credit check; then Ms. Breed personally reviews all applicants. Testers must be able to be recognized as the protected class they will represent in the test, e.g. if testing for discrimination against people with disabilities, the tester must have a visible disability. Testers must go through Sentinel's HUD-approved training process prior to acceptance. Testers are never told what issue they are testing and the only time they would ever learn more about a test case is if they are required to testify pursuant to a fair housing lawsuit. Testers are paid a stipend of $35 per test, which usually takes from 1-1/2 to 3- 1/2 hours per test. The Testing Process: When Sentinel receives a discrimination complaint, paired testers are sent to find or disprove a discriminatory housing practice. Two people who are as similar as possible except for the single variable being tested are sent out with various specific instructions regarding their housing application. In response to a question, Breed indicated that testing is not entrapment and that testing is deemed legal by the courts, indeed it is one of the only ways that discrimination testing can be fairly done. She noted also that more often than not they find no discrimination has occurred in reported incidents. Sentinel had participated in a statewide study of discrimination in 2000-01 and found some instances of differential treatment in Alameda. F:SSHRB\AGENDA & MINUTES\2005 | SocialServiceHumanRelationsBoard/2005-01-27.pdf |