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The Boulder-Longmont Association of REALTORS® would like to respond to comments made by Longmont City Councilor and mayoral candidate Joan Peck in her response to the ECHO affordable housing survey published in the Longmont Leader on October 3.
Ms. Peck, in her response to a question about racism, said she would support “equity training for all industries serving the public directly, i.e., realtors (sic), restaurants, retailers, public service employees, etc.” She also referred to racist practices by REALTORS® prior to the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968.
Members of our association are also members of the National Association of REALTORS®. NAR owned up to its responsibility for being on the wrong side of history regarding the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Last year, NAR President Charlie Oppler apologized for past NAR policies that supported racist practices including steering, redlining, and creating covenants that prohibited nonwhite people from living in certain communities.
We support the Fair Housing Act and reconfirm our commitment to upholding fair housing law as well as their commitment to offering equal professional service to all in their search for real property. In fact, NAR’s Fair Housing Action Plan, abbreviated ‘ACT,’ emphasizes (A)ccountability, (C)ulture Change, and (T)raining to ensure America’s 1.4 million REALTORS® are doing everything possible to protect housing rights in America.
Our members pledge to follow NAR’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. The Code of Ethics governs our business practices and goes further to prohibit denial of professional services for reasons of “race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.” Furthermore, REALTORS® shall not be parties to any plan or agreement to discriminate against a person or persons on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.”
Our association continues to emphasize Fair Housing practices and the NAR Code of Ethics in training required for our members. Violation of these standards is grounds for membership revocation.
We cannot speak for real estate licensees in Longmont who are not REALTORS®. But we do speak for our members. The “equity training” referenced by Ms. Peck is not needed for our members, because we already require training, which covers Fair Housing requirements as well as the ethical requirements for all REALTORS®.
