A partnership between the Human Relations Council and the Washington Housing Authority brought the Fair Housing Forum to the people, changing the normal venue of the forum from City Hall to the Old Fort Community Center.

“The Human Relations Commission was the primary sponsor of the event and they asked us to help partner with them,” said Marc Recko, director of the Washington Housing Authority and Mid-east Housing Authority.

According to Recko, he had given a presentation at the council’s annual meeting last year.

“We came up with the idea that wouldn’t it be great to have a Human Relations Council Meeting or meetings out at some of our sites to bring the meetings right out to the community rather than have them at city hall,” Recko said.

According to Recko, both organizations thought it would be a good idea so they partnered up for this year’s Human Relations Training Session, bringing the forum to the Old Fort Community Center Administration Building on Ninth Street.

“This was in hopes of getting a good response, get some of our residents out as well as the normal people that would come,” Recko said.

Recko said William O’Pharrow, member of the Human Relations Council was the front person on working with Recko to pull the forum together.

According to Recko, the idea was to get some good information out to local politicians and community residents on three areas—the Fair Housing Forum, the Affordable Care Act and Homeownership opportunities, made available through Washington Housing and nonprofits. Three speakers presented information to residents that attended, each speaking on one of the three subjects:

“We put this on to encourage people in the community to purchase homeownership,” said O’Pharrow. “Also, we wanted to help them understand how to go about acquiring homeownership and help them get some of them out of the housing projects through saving.”

According to O’Pharrow, the forum also educated residents about programs through the Housing Authority that could help them accumulate funds to purchase a decent home.

“We kind of encouraged them on their rights on renting as well as purchasing a home,” O’Pharrow said.

According to O’Pharrow, he foresees the forum to yield a successful turnout, especially through the partnership with the Housing Authority.

“We appreciate Recko for allowing us to have it in his department because that’s where we are aiming,” O’Pharrow said. “We are hoping that we can encourage them to, after they stay there for some time, decide to go out on their own and purchase a home.”

O’Pharrow said that many residents don’t know about Fair Housing as well as the programs offered through the Housing Authority, but he hopes that residents who do understand it will spread the word in their communities.