This House is Not a Home: A Discussion on Housing in Minority Communities

CJRL was founded in 2010 with the purpose of deepening the legal community’s discourse on historic and contemporary notions of socio-political and legal challenges facing racial and ethnic minorities. Each year we host a symposium to bring together experts to shed greater light on legal issues that impact communities of color.  Past symposia have covered topics related to immigration and the legacy of the Civil Rights Act.

This year’s CJRL symposium will be held on November 11, 2015 and will focus on new, cutting-edge thinking about housing affordability and its impact on communities of color. This summer, the Supreme Court forcefully reminded state and local governments that the Fair Housing Act of 1968 forbids them from spending federal housing money in ways that perpetuate segregation. Communities across the country have been doing exactly that for decades.  Our hope is to spark discourse on a range of issues including fair housing barriers to the creation of affordable housing, gentrification, suburbanization, and segregation.

This year’s Symposium, “This House is Not a Home: A Discussion on Housing in Minority Communities,“ includes the following speakers:

Michelle Aronowitz- Deputy General Counsel at U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development
Nikole Hannah-Jones- Investigative Reporter for The New York Times Magazine
Tom Silverstein- Associate Counsel in the Lawyer’s Committee’s Fair Housing & Community Development Project
Professor Diane Houk- Columbia Law School, and Of Counsel at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP