Marianas Variety Guam Edition – The Local and Regional Newspaper

MICRONESIANS are most likely to experience housing discrimination because many of them are unaware of their rights to fair housing, the Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority stated in its 2008-2009 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report.

Contributing to this situation “is a general mindset within this population that it is unacceptable to create friction by lodging formal complaints,” the report said.

 In addition to the identification of immigrants from the Federated States of Micronesia, the study cited that immigrants from Palau and Marshall Islands, the other freely associated states, are also likely to experience discrimination with regards to issues surrounding fair housing.

The Guam Comprehensive Housing Study of 2009, which was completed in August, included the compiling of relevant data to develop an updated impediments report.

Impediments

According to GHURA’s performance report, a local effort to provide an updated “analysis of impediment” study is scheduled for completion by the end of November. The analysis of impediment was first conducted in 2005.

GHURA reported that since the completion of the 2005 study, public awareness of fair housing has “increased significantly.” Despite the lack of a centralized fair housing compliance process, referrals are generally funneled either to GHURA’s fair housing coordinator or the Office of the Attorney General.

Additional efforts to increase awareness on fair housing processes include workshops that provide education on fair housing laws and concepts. Despite ethics courses that focused on licensing preparation courses for real estate professionals, the GHURA report said the issue of fair housing was “addressed in limited fashion.”

lack of data

While there have been current efforts to improve local awareness of fair housing issues, the study noted that a “lack of reliable demographic data makes an analysis of fair housing issues relating to home insurance and home mortgage lenders difficult to ascertain.”

In order to eliminate impediments to fair housing, GHURA’s report recommended amendments and updates to the island’s fair housing law, expansion of education and outreach efforts, revision of the fair housing investigation process, increasing outreach efforts to  Micronesian and disabled communities, and revision of existing real estate laws.
 

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