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Veterans Listening Session tackles housing discrimination

Fayetteville Observer - 8/8/2018

Aug. 08--The N.C. Fair Housing Project's listening tour made a stop in Fayetteville on Wednesday morning, but the turnout included more veterans service providers than invited veterans to discuss housing concerns.

Jack Holtzman, a lawyer and co-director of the Fair Housing Project of Legal Aid North Carolina, told the 25 people at the Cumberland County Department of Social Services that the special Veterans Listening Session was intended to better serve the veterans community. The purpose of the session was to inform retired service members of their rights when dealing with possible housing discrimination that they experience or people that they know have experienced.

"We haven't done enough of this," Holtzman said. "We decided we wanted both the city of Fayetteville and Cumberland County to hear from you. The folks who are veterans, the folks with military affiliation, (in order) to find out what the important fair housing issues are for you so we can better do our work enforcing fair housing rights for the veterans community, both here and with our partners in Fayetteville and across the state. What the problems are, the barriers to fair housing, so we can do a better job."

Fredereick Blockett, 39, was among those on hand. His military career included four years in the Marines and four in the Army. He is the post service officer for VFW Post 6018 on Chance Street.

He said he attended the listening session "to get information so I can take it back to the post. All this information about veterans -- they don't know," Blockett said. "I hear from a lot of people who are being discriminated against."

Those cases, he said, include situations where landlords occasionally "set the rent up, much higher" and set what Blockett considered unnecessary rules for their tenants to follow.

National housing testing has revealed that veterans may be victims of discrimination based on the belief by housing providers of a perceived disability or the presence of a disability, according to the Fayetteville Fair Housing Board.

The listening session was a collaboration between the Fair Housing Board, the Fayetteville-Cumberland Human Relations Department, Legal Aid of N.C. and the N.C. Fair Housing Project.

Staff writer Michael Futch can be reached at mfutch@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3529.

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