Posted April 17, 2023
In recognition of April as Fair Housing Month, Housing and Community Development will hold a virtual forum on the Mapping Racist Covenants project. The project tells the story of racist covenants across Tucson neighborhoods and subdivisions, focusing on those enacted between 1912-1950. Covenants, conditions, and restrictions created racially restrictive neighborhoods across the United States. The project helps situate how racist covenants are part of a larger set of institutional housing restrictions that have, and continue to, affect communities of color.
The webinar will be held at 12 p.m., Friday, April 28. Panelists include Laurice Walker, Chief Equity Officer, City of Tucson; Jason Jurjevich, University of Arizona assistant professor, director of the MRC project; Liane Wong, member of the MRC advisory group. Manisha Bewtra, Planning, Mobility, and Development Advisor to Mayor Regina Romero, will give introductory remarks.
Mayor Romero will issue a Fair Housing Month proclamation at the Mayor and Council meeting, 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 18.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the landmark Civil Rights Act, which Title VIII included the Fair Housing Act, on April 11, 1968. The Fair Housing Act established the values of equality, equity, and dignity in our national and local public housing policies and practices. The Act targeted inequities in housing and aimed to eliminate racial segregation and guarantee that all people in America have the right to secure safe and decent housing free from discrimination.
Register at bit.ly/MRCHousingForum
Watch live on Housing and Community Development's YouTube Channel
Link to the forum flyer.
More information on Mapping Racist Covenants project can be found at mappingracistcovenants.org