12th Annual Fair Housing Luncheon

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission held its Twelfth Annual Fair Housing Luncheon on Tuesday, April 10, 2023 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Lexington. Over 200 joined the Commission to celebrate April as Fair Housing Month and to hear guest speaker Dr. Robert Ardinger, President of Ardinger Consultants and Associates. Each year the Commission hosts the Housing Information Station along with the luncheon. The Housing Information Station gives agencies/organizations the opportunity to share information on their agency/organization with luncheon participants. This year, twenty agencies participated in the Housing Information Station, which are the most participants since the Commission began offering the Housing Information Station. A couple of the participating agencies include: Community Action Council, Greater Lexington Apartment Association, LFUCG Division of Community Development and the Realtor Community Housing Foundation. Attendees of the luncheon were addressed by Commission Chair Rabbi Marc Kline, HRC Housing Committee Chair Gwen Godfrey, Vicki Ray, Director of FHEO Program Center, US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – Louisville Field Office, Cheryl Lewis, Director, LFUCG Division of Adult Services, Commissioner Andrea Coleman, Commission Vice Chair, and Commission members Faye Liebermann, Mahjabeen Rafiuddin, Gloria Rie and Biby Tinajero. This was the Inaugural year for the Outstanding Achievement in Fair Housing Awards, which recognizes individuals and organizations that have shown exemplary performances in fair housing practices. The Commission presented awards in three (3) categories: individual, business and organization. This year’s recipients were: Robert Jefferson – Individual, Greater Lexington Apartment Association – Organization and Heritage and Canterbury Apartments – Business. For the first year, two (2) elementary schools participated in the Fair Housing Coloring Contest. Third-grade students from Ashland Elementary and Harrison Elementary Schools were presented with awards for their participation in the coloring contest. The coloring contest is a program the Commission began to get housing information to the parents and guardians of the students and to expose students to fair housing and diversity information. Dr. Robert “Bob” Ardinger was the guest speaker for this year’s luncheon and was a huge success. Dr. Ardinger began by discussing the different definitions for disability and why they were so broad. His speech was littered with personal accounts, including, but definitely not limited to, being a member of the United States Olympic Wheelchair Basketball Team, and his frustration with many tools made for people with disabilities. The audience was very entertained by his discussion of universal design and how it can impact the daily lives of not only people with disabilities but also the rest of the population. He reiterated to the audience that people with disabilities are everywhere and need to stop being pushed away and made invisible. While progress has been made, there is still a long way to go. Dr. Ardinger’s open and honest approach made him entertaining, approachable and most of all understandable. More information and pictures from the luncheon will be posted shortly.
Workshop Information	Luncheon Guest Speaker
Luncheon Co-Sponsors	Information Station Participants
Outstanding Achievement in Fair Housing Award	Fair Housing/Cultural Diversity Awareness Program (Coloring Contest)

Disability and Fair Housing Workshop

Topics Included:

Overview of the housing needs of persons with disabilities in our local community
Fair Housing Laws as a resource to help overcome barriers to housing needs of persons with disabilities
Local Housing Resources for persons with disabilities

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Luncheon Guest Speaker:
Dr. Robert "Bob" Ardinger

Dr. Robert "Bob" Ardinger is President of Ardinger Consultants and Associates, a successful civil rights consulting business. He is nationally recognized as an expert on civil rights issues for persons with disabilities and has over 15 years of experience in policy development, program planning and management at both federal and state levels.

Dr. Ardinger is the former Section 504 Program Manager for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he played a key role in the development of both of HUD's section 504 Regulations and the 1988 Fair Housing Act Amendments regulations.

Dr. Ardinger holds a PhD in Special Education Administration from John Hopkins University, M.A. Equivalence in Education and Special Education from Morgan State University, an M.A. in Political Science from Antioch University and a B.S. in History from the University of Maryland.

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Co-Sponsors

Community Action Council
Community Reinvestment Alliance of Lexington
Community Ventures Corporation
Governor's Office of Minority Empowerment
Greater Lexington Apartment Association
HOPE Center
Kentucky Commission on Human Rights
Kentucky Conference for Community & Justice
Kentucky Fairness Alliance - Bluegrass Chapter
Kentucky Housing Corporation
Lexington Bluegrass Association of Realtors
Lexington Downtown Development Authority
Lexington Fair Housing Council
Lexington-Fayette County Branch of NAACP
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Housing Authority
Lexington Habitat for Humanity
LFUCG Division of Adult and Tenant Services
LFUCG Division of Community Development
LFUCG Division of Planning
LFUCG Division of Police - Crime Free Multi-Housing Program
REACH, Inc.
Realtor Community Housing Foundation
Urban League

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Information Station Participants

Community Action Council
Community Reinvestment Alliance of Lexington
Community Ventures Corporation
Greater Lexington Apartment Association
HOPE Center
Kentucky Commission on Human Rights
Kentucky Conference for Community & Justice
Kentucky Fairness Alliance - Bluegrass Chapter
Kentucky Housing Corporation
Lexington Bluegrass Association of Realtors
Lexington Downtown Development Authority
Lexington Fair Housing Council
Lexington-Fayette County Branch of NAACP
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Housing Authority
LFUCG Division of Adult and Tenant Services
LFUCG Division of Community Development
LFUCG Division of Police - Crime Free Multi-Housing Program
REACH, Inc.
Realtor Community Housing Foundation
U.S. Dept of HUD - Louisville Field Office

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Fair Housing/Cultural Diversity Awareness Program

The Human Rights Commission started the Harrison Elementary Fair Housing/Cultural Diversity Awareness Program in 1998 to educate the students on diversity issues and the students’ parents/guardians on fair housing issues.

Over the past ten years the Commission has provided an array of activities and includes the third grade class in fair housing month activities every April. In April 2001 the students participated in a fair housing coloring contest, attended the Commission’s fair housing luncheon and won awards, and traveled to Frankfort, KY to meet Governor Paul Patton as he signed the fair housing month proclamation for 2000.

Harrison third-grade teacher, Jane Hellmann has been a key supporter of the program. In addition, several members of the community have contributed to the program such as Brenda Wells and Nancy Smith of the Lexington Apartment Association and the Lexington Bluegrass Association of Realtors®.

This year, the Commission has expanded it's Fair Housing Coloring Contest and Ashland Elementary School will be participating. We hope to add additional elementary schools in the future. Please contact the Commission if you would like the Commission to include your or your child's school in the future.

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