VHFA is pleased to be a sponsor of the 2024 April Fair Housing Month kick off event “Just Action” with authors Leah & Richard Rothstein on April 1 starting at 5:30pm at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center in Burlington. This free event and statewide housing justice book club will promote community-based solutions to housing segregation and exclusion.
In his best-selling book The Color of Law, Richard Rothstein debunked the de facto segregation myth that black and white Americans live separately by choice, providing “the most forceful argument ever published on how federal, state, and local governments gave rise to and reinforced neighborhood segregation” (William Julius Wilson). In Just Action, Rothstein teamed up with his daughter, housing policy expert Leah Rothstein, to provide community leaders, activists, and supporters a blueprint for redressing residential segregation.
Just Action describes how local groups can learn about their region’s history and offers policies and strategies they can pursue to improve resources in lower-income segregated areas, open up exclusive suburban neighborhoods to diversity, and improve housing opportunities everywhere. This work is closely aligned with policy change and activities taking place at the state and local levels all over Vermont as we seek out ways to mitigate the current housing crisis, recover from the effects of the pandemic and devastating flooding, and create more perpetually affordable homes.
The event is hosted by Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center in Burlington and presented by the Vermont Human Rights Commission and Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO). The presentation by Richard and Leah begins at 5:30pm followed by discussion and a happy hour between 7-8pm.
For more information and to RSVP for this free event, click here.
Look for VHFA’s table with materials and information on homeownership opportunities.
In preparation for the Rothsteins’ visit, the Human Rights Commission and CVOEO are facilitating a statewide Housing Justice Book Club. Free copies of Just Action are available on request and participants can join the online book discussion on March 25 as well as the April 1 event. To learn more and request your book, click here.
About Fair Housing Month
Each year in April, the Fair Housing Project of CVOEO coordinates a month-long series of events and activities to celebrate the 1968 passage of the Fair Housing Act. CVOEO and partners have created a robust schedule of free public education and art events to raise awareness about the importance of equal access to housing, free from discrimination, and the positive role that inclusive, affordable housing plays in thriving communities. Virtual and in-person activities include workshops, community discussions, book groups, presentations, library events, and the all-ages HeART & Home Community Art Project. Learn more at https://fairhousingmonthvt.org/