Mortgage Matters

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a Kun V studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Ta

Roland Daniels 0:22
da Good morning Las Vegas. Welcome to mortgage matters. I'm your host, Roland Daniels, a certified mortgage advisor with Geneva financial. My NMLS number is 355859, our company, NMLS number is 42056, and I'm here this morning with my fantastic co host, Heidi Griffith, good morning. Heidi, well, good morning. Roland, how are you? I am doing fantastic. It's definitely spring. It is. It's getting warm out there.

Heidi Griffith 1:12
It's gorgeous right now. It's gonna be warm later. Yes, it will. It's just the way we roll here, huh? That's roll. Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Griffith. I'm also a mortgage advisor, and I'm your Director of Client Services. My NMLS number is 2247754, so real quick, if you have any thoughts or questions about today's show, or you'd like to register for any of our upcoming classes or workshop, please feel free. You can call or text us. Our number is 702-210-2057, again, that number is 702-210-2057, we have a really important show lined up today, don't we? We do We sure do? I feel like this is one that couldn't come at a better time. But before we get into that, I just want to let you know about some exciting educational opportunities we have happening in August. We have, excuse me, April. April. Wow. I already went to

Roland Daniels 2:00
August. It is April Fair Housing Month. It

Heidi Griffith 2:04
is Fair Housing Month, and that's why our special guest is with us today. But before I get to that, let's talk about our April calendar. It's full. It's full if, if you want to take a look at our April calendar, it's actually now live on our Facebook page. You can search mortgage matters radio, and it's packed with a variety of ways to get informed, get prepared and take the next step towards home ownership. There's also links to the event, rights to register for any of the upcoming classes or workshops as well,

Roland Daniels 2:28
and then on Saturday, April the fifth. So this coming Saturday, we will be hosting our path to home ownership workshop in partnership with a HUD certified housing counselors, CPLC, in attending this workshop, it provides a home buyer certificate that can help you become eligible for all of our down payment assistance programs that we offer, including the four to one wish program, which is a matching program. We'll also be teaming up again with Nevada housing division in April to explore the home as possible down payment programs, plus we've got three other online learning sessions coming up. We have a class for veterans and service members to learn all about their benefits and the process to using VA home loan. And then we also have a class designed for realtors, and that will be focused on how to use down payment assistance programs to help your clients. And then up we have an A to Z class where we break it down when it comes to down payment assistance programs that we will cover probably around 15 or 16 different programs that we're offering at the moment.

Heidi Griffith 3:42
Yeah, and really quickly, I want to touch on all three classes. The VA class is a great one if you're a service member and or you are a veteran, first and foremost, thank you for your service. This is a great class. The VA loan is really underused. It is. It is one of the best benefits that our men and women that go out in the front lines and fight for us get when they come back home, right? And one you definitely want to explore if you are, like I said, a service member or a veteran,

Roland Daniels 4:13
and unfortunately, only less than 20% of the veterans out there actually use their VA home loan benefit. And we're trying to change. Yeah, that's,

Heidi Griffith 4:22
it's crazy. So, and that's 20% of people that own homes that is currently veterans, yeah. So it is underused. So if you are a real estate professional, or, you know, a real estate professional, this might be a class you want to check out, because we talk about down payment assistance, we talk about the programs and all of the myths that are associated with them, especially in the climate that we're in right now, there are still programs available. This will not only help your business, but this will help families get into homes that might not have had the opportunity to do so. And then that all about Down Payment Assistance class. That's the third one you were talking about. That one, even if you've attended any of our classes with. Nevada housing, Nevada Rural, even the full day workshop. This class actually really breaks down the 16 programs we have. It talks about qualifications. It talks about debt to income. It talks about the myths. It talks about how to qualify for these it really is if you're thinking about purchasing a home, especially using a down payment assistance program. This is just one of those hour long sessions that you can jump on from your sofa, comfy. You can be in your jammies if you want. You can hop on and just learn a little bit more. Because knowledge is power, right?

Roland Daniels 5:31
I 100% agree, and we hear it on a weekly basis from individuals, realtors, consumers, stating that we've been told there are no programs available. There is no money available.

Heidi Griffith 5:46
There is yes, there is so if you have any questions about any of our upcoming classes or workshops, please, you can feel free to give us a call or text us to register. Or if you have any questions, our number is 70221020572, 2102057,

Roland Daniels 6:03
that's 702-210-2057.

Heidi Griffith 6:07
And again, if you don't want to give us a call, you're more than welcome to hop on to our Facebook page. Mortgage matters radio, you'll find the links to all the upcoming classes. You will find past episodes of the show on Spotify that you can listen to. So today's show is part of our help us help initiative. It is Fair Housing Month, right? It is, yeah, well, it will be shortly, very shortly, April is going to be Fair Housing Month. And the help us help initiative. It's kind of our way of spotlighting the people in organizations that are out there doing the real work. They're helping individuals. They're helping families. In a lot of ways that maybe you don't know you need help until you need help. It's a lot of things that you know we don't see every day, and we find it really important to kind of highlight we do these services that are available, that are available to the community, yeah, and we started it to connect people with resources, right? We get a lot of phone calls. I have this scenario, and I don't know what to do, whether it's mortgage related, whether it's rent related, we get a lot of phone calls. We do, and we like to be able to put you in touch with people that can help you. And that's what we're doing here today. So recently, and we talked about it on a couple of shows, HUD's rolled back some key factors to Fair Housing protections, and they've reduced funding to some of the enforcement efforts. So this has kind of raised some concerns among housing advocates, and with these changes unfolding, we really feel that it's important to connect with the local experts like our guest today. So Fernanda hakee, the education and outreach coordinator with Silver State Fair Council, Fair Housing Council, excuse me, is with us today. Hi, Fernanda. Good morning. Hi, good morning. Thank you so much for being here.

Roland Daniels 7:55
Thank you again for being here. We're

Heidi Griffith 7:56
excited. So let's just, let's start with Silver State Fair Housing what is what? It's a nonprofit, right, correct. So what do you guys do?

Fernanda Heki 8:05
So thank you for having me here today. I'm very excited to be here like you said. I'm the outreach education outreach coordinator for Silver State Fair Housing Council. We are a private nonprofit organization. We serve the state of Nevada in its entirety. It doesn't matter where you are, as long as you're in Nevada, we can assist you. We have an office down here in Las Vegas, and we have one up in Reno. But if someone in the rural area is experiencing some sort of housing discrimination, we can assist them to file a complaint with HUD. It doesn't matter where they are, we're always happy to go to them, and we're able to do that because of our funding. Wonderful,

Heidi Griffith 8:45
wonderful. And so tell me, how did you end up in this space

Fernanda Heki 8:49
by accident? Oh, I'm completely frank. Okay, love to hear your story. I graduated from you and I with a bachelor's in communication studies and a minor in Spanish translation. I'm looking for work Silver State Fair Housing Council announcement or work draft post comes up several times. I ignore it, and it keeps popping up. So I say, You know what I'm going to apply to this place? And Kate, our Executive Director, she reached out to me immediately, went in for an interview. Was great, and the rest has been history. I've been with the agency for three years. It was my anniversary at the beginning of March.

Heidi Griffith 9:29
Happy anniversary. Thank you.

Fernanda Heki 9:32
So three years with silver state. So far so good. I really enjoyed my job. I was up in the northern Nevada office for a year. Moved down to Las Vegas two years ago. But, you know, the work is just, it's non stop. It's great. I enjoy my position in the organization. So that's that's pretty much it.

Heidi Griffith 9:55
That's awesome. So let's just take a second, because we're talking about. Housing. It sounds like we should, you know, like we should know what that mean it it really is encompassed. So we talked about it. We actually had nareb, the organization, nareb, in studio with us. They're the National Association of real estate brokers, of real estate brokers in the studio. They are considered real tests, because when Realtors first became an organization, they didn't actually allow black people to become realtors, so they had to form their own organization that was nereb, and they actually were the driving force behind the creation of HUD and the creation of the fair housing law. So interesting tidbit, yeah, and fair housing is, is really, really important, because it's not just a race thing. It's not it's not just one thing, right? So that's correct. Fair Housing covers what race,

Fernanda Heki 10:55
yes. So the Federal Fair Housing Act covers race, color, national origin, religion, sex, family, status and disability. There are seven protections at a federal level. However, each state has individual additional protections. Oh, yes. So in the state of Nevada, we have ancestry, sexual orientation and gender identity and expression also covered.

Heidi Griffith 11:18
So on top of the traditional correct, oh, okay, that's great to know. And so we know that fair housing was introduced in 1968 right, correct, in the 60s, right? So it was, it was part of the Civil Rights Act of 68 signed into law. It looks like it was signed into law. So this is it. So april 11, 1968 that's the reason why we're in Fair Housing Month in April, right? And actually, the bill was passed just seven days after Dr King was assassinated, yes, so that's some interesting tidbits about that. So how does fair housing help us all?

Fernanda Heki 11:52
Well, we're all protected by fair housing, okay, right? We all have a race, the color, national origin, religion or no, religion is already covered by the Fair Housing Act, sex, family status, so we're all covered by it, because it doesn't just protect if you want, like, if you want a house, right? If you want to rent a house, if you want to rent an apartment, it doesn't just cover rental, it covers owning a home, right? Someone wants to sell you sell a home. If someone wants to buy your home, appraisals Hoa, especially here in Southern Nevada, as well, lending. It covers all of that, right? Even local jurisdictions are not above the Fair Housing Act. So let's say you have a disability. People with disabilities have the right to reasonable accommodations and modifications. So those are either changes on the structure, interior or exterior, like a ramp, correct? Like a ramp, like widening a driveway, something along those lines will be a modification, an accommodation will be a change on the policy. Let's say you live in a in a place where you're not zoned for poultry, right? Chicken, but you have the space for it, you can request a reasonable accommodation from the city to be able to have that really, yes, so, so fair housing, really, really, really, does apply to every single one of us in more than one way, wow,

Heidi Griffith 13:20
wow. So it's big, it is. It's big, and it's important, right? We want to make sure that we're all treated fairly, and I think that's what it really boils down to, doesn't it exactly? However?

Fernanda Heki 13:30
I'm glad you mentioned that okay, because there is that one misconception, and we do get a lot of calls. Well, my landlord raised my rent, and that is not fair. It's not, however, under the Fair Housing Act, right? It's not illegal under the Fair Housing Act for your landlord to raise rent. So it's very that that is where it gets very gray. Well, this is not fair. What is happening to me is not fair, and unfortunately, it's not fair. A lot of times it might be discrimination. For example, someone not taking Section A right, if you have section eight, I don't want to rent to you because of your section eight. Is it discrimination? Yes. Is it illegal? Unfortunately, not under the Fair Housing Act. So that is where, where that fair portion can get a little where there can be some sort of misunderstanding. When we get those calls, the Hey, well, this is not fair, and this is happening to me, so it must be illegal, right?

Heidi Griffith 14:29
So give me an example of what fair housing does cover something that you see a lot. What do you see a lot? What's the biggest discrimination that you get when you get the when the phone rings? Disability? Disability, yes,

Fernanda Heki 14:41
disability is perhaps about 80 to 90% and this is just a random number, just from phone calls, right? A lot of disability issues, a lot of reasonable accommodations, reasonable modifications. And like I said, people with disabilities have the right to request accommodations. So. Modifications and under the Fair Housing Act, the definition of a disability is a mental or physical impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities. Having a record of a disability or being regarded as someone who could develop a disability. It's essentially the definition of a disability under the Fair Housing Act. Wow. And

Heidi Griffith 15:21
that's the number one, yes, wow. So

Fernanda Heki 15:25
I requested, I want an emotional support animal, or I need an emotional support animal, but my landlord doesn't let me because they don't allow pets, right? Okay, well, have you made the initial request? No, I have not, okay, perfect. We can assist them with the template to make that initial request for that accommodation. Yes, I already made the request, but it was denied. We can assist them with the follow up letter. And let me start by saying that we are not attorneys. We don't have any attorneys on staff or all advocates. So when we write that follow up letter is no, it's, it doesn't it's not meant to be a threatening letter, right? It's more of a hey, let me educate you a little more. And we provide all the guidance from HUD that we have to that housing provider to make sure you know that they go through it, they read it and make another decision, a little bit more educated. Makes

Heidi Griffith 16:25
sense. Makes sense. So you're there to help people, absolutely, but you're not there as a legal source for people, yes, and we don't. I mean, we're not here to try and scare people, right? We're here, and that's the end game. So I think that that's interesting, good. So aside from the the fair, because that made a lot of sense, and you actually just gave me a big eye opener. Thank you. Aside from that, any other common misconceptions,

Fernanda Heki 16:54
um, with fair housing, I mean, the fair is one of the biggest portions. Also, we get calls. Hey, my landlord is doing this. Can you call them? I would like to make a complaint, and I want you to investigate the complaint or something along those lines. Well, we are not the enforcers of the Fair Housing Act. HUD is the enforcer of the Fair Housing Act. So if you, if you file a housing discrimination complaint. HUD would be the agency investigating the complaint. So we as an organization, cannot call your landlord and say, Hey, Joe Smith said that you did this or this happened, right? We cannot. We cannot do that. We do not investigate complaints as an agency, per se, we don't do the investigation portion. We don't go, you know, knocking on doors saying this happened, does not happen. We don't do that so that that is a really, really big one. So

Roland Daniels 17:55
you'll show the consumer how to file the complaint absolutely

Fernanda Heki 17:59
so if they need to file a complaint, we can always have help them at our office. We can also send them a link to do it at their own time. They can call HUD. What we can do for them after they file the complaint. Once they get that inquiry number, they can give them, they can give it to us, and we can track the complaint. Oh, and we'll just let them know. Hey, yes, such person, such intake person, has your complaint, right? This is a person you have to contact something along those lines, but us, as an agency, do not investigate the actual complaint. What we do? We have a tester discrimination program. I don't know if you guys are familiar with secret shoppers. We are, of course, okay, so we, we have a program very, very similar to secret shoppers, but it's, it's for housing testers, essentially. And we are always looking for volunteers. We we have volunteers of all walks of life, of all paths of life. So anyone who is interested, they are more than welcome to contact us if they would like to. So this particular program, like I said, secret shoppers, but for housing, we are giving you a whole persona. Essentially. We give you basic questions. You ask those questions, and you come back to our tester coordinator in the debrief, what was said to you? Right? What happened? We usually send them in pairs.

Roland Daniels 19:24
So what was in person or over the phone? It can be either or, Yes,

Fernanda Heki 19:28
it can be either or there is a small stipend for those who would like to participate as a thank you. So like I said, we do it in pairs. They come back debrief. Are there in any disparities, right? And what was said to tester a and tester B, right? So that is a really, really cool program, and we train them.

Heidi Griffith 19:50
That's wonderful. So if I was someone who wanted to become involved in that, how do I go about doing that? The email

Fernanda Heki 19:57
is fair housing. At S, S F, H, c.org, or you can also give us a call to 888-585-8634,

Heidi Griffith 20:12
so if you wanted to become a tester, you can either email or call and give me that email again. It's fair housing.

Fernanda Heki 20:18
That is correct. It's fair housing at s, s, f, h, c.org, so silver,

Heidi Griffith 20:24
State Fair Housing council.org, correct. So the first letter perfect. You know what? I'm going to look into that. That's exciting. I think that that's great.

Fernanda Heki 20:35
We have trainings every month, and if one of the trainings you see displayed or ready. Schedule does not work for your schedule. Can schedule them for you as well.

Heidi Griffith 20:44
So how long is the training? The training is three hours. Okay, so it's a three hour training. You go over fair housing, I'm gonna Okay, so you go over fair housing, and what people are gonna be looking for and hearing and that kind of stuff that is correct. Wonderful, correct. Wonderful, wonderful. If that's something that you're interested in, please feel free to reach out to Silver State Fair Housing Council.

Roland Daniels 21:02
What happens with the information that the testers are good?

Fernanda Heki 21:06
Question gathering provided, yes. Okay, so a lot of times that information helps as evidence for complaints. If there, if it, there is a, you know, legitimate complaint, if someone wants to file, they can use that, okay, yeah, we had actually a person who contacted silverstead and said, Hey, I was told that this particular place doesn't rent to people with children. So a test was conducted. It does Yes, it does happen. So the test was conducted. First call said there was a child. Sorry, we don't I don't rent two families with kids, or I don't rent two people with children, is what was said. Wow. The second tester called said it was just her and her husband. You're gonna love it here. Come write down, because guess what? It's so quiet because I do not accept FAMU, Oh, wow. That person filed on themselves. Yes, they did. They filed a complaint, and that tester report was was submitted as additional evidence. Wow.

Heidi Griffith 22:14
Okay, so it really does help with the work. Yes, it

Fernanda Heki 22:18
definitely does. And you know what? I truly believe that housing providers, the community and advocates, everyone should attend the fair housing training I agree to know what their rights are as tenants under fair housing, of course, as tenants, as landlords, as housing providers, at as advocates as well. A lot of advocates are helping people get housed Right, right, or also state house right. So the Fair Housing Act would could and would be a great tool to accomplish that, and we provide those trainings at no cost. For housing providers, they're on Zoom. And again, if you don't see that we have a training, reach out to us and say, Hey, when are you guys having one of these? Let

Heidi Griffith 23:12
me interrupt you for a second, yeah. So this training that we're talking about is separate from the tester training. So this is an additional training you guys offer Yes. So

Fernanda Heki 23:21
we, every month, we offer, offer fair housing trainings there via zoom, okay, over basics of fair housing. We have one that focuses on reasonable accommodations and modifications for people with disabilities. We have a training that focuses just emotional support animals. We have accredited trainings for real estate professionals as well, which is accredited by the Nevada division. So they can use that for their ces Correct. I'm sorry, but the Nevada real estate division is accredited. Those we do have, we do require a very small payment as ces go, yeah, exactly, exactly. But we do, we do conduct all times of training for architects developers and also legal groups, and for those we do bring experts on the matter,

Roland Daniels 24:08
and all of these classes are open to the general public, if they

Fernanda Heki 24:12
would like to attend. Absolutely. They are geared towards housing providers, but we have never said no to anyone who is willing to learn more about fair housing. Yeah, and

Heidi Griffith 24:22
what I would really like to speak on on that is it's important that we it's great that we have advocates like Silver State Fair Housing Council on our side. It's wonderful that you're there, and that's why we're doing this. Help us help initiative for that reason specifically. But I really do want to stress the factor of we have to advocate for ourselves. We have to we have to know what's going on. And it's tough sometimes, but when there are resources like your classes, that might be an opportunity just to learn a little bit more, and they'll be able to find out about those classes on your website. Again, I think you. Said it was fair housing. So

Fernanda Heki 25:02
the website is SSF, HC, oh, okay, that

Heidi Griffith 25:05
work. Okay. So Silver State Fair Housing council.org, so s, s, F, H, C, I will get this down by the time we're done here.org, and all of your classes will be I will be attending classes, and I will be there. I will love attending class virtually. Yes, absolutely. We've done virtual already. Our initial meeting was virtual, so that's wonderful. Yes.

Roland Daniels 25:31
And do you have any upcoming workshops?

Fernanda Heki 25:35
Yes, so we actually have a big community resource fair that we're hoping for the public. We hope the public would like to attend, providers, anyone who would like to attend this community resource first is, is the second one? Is the second year doing it? It is going to be on Saturday, April 5, from 10am to 2pm at the East Las Vegas community center, wonderful, and we are going to be there. We're going to have, we have up to 20 agencies from around Las Vegas area joining us. So there's going to be a lot of resources for the community, for advocates, for anyone that just wants to come out and learn a little bit more about the resources out there. It's, it's going to be the place to be.

Heidi Griffith 26:24
So I have to ask, is this specifically for Fair Housing Month? Is that why you're doing it during it? Oh, you are. Yes,

Fernanda Heki 26:32
it is. It is for Fair Housing Month, celebration of her Fair Housing Month, even though I would like to say that every month is fair housing. Every day, every day of every month is Fair Housing Month. However, in April, we like to get a little bit more fancy, right? So we, we are doing this community resource fair for the community. So

Heidi Griffith 26:52
that's at the East Las Vegas community center. That's a great facility. You have the address here?

Fernanda Heki 26:59
Yes, I do. So it is a 250, Northeastern Avenue. It's going to be on ballroom, a from 10am to 2pm

Heidi Griffith 27:07
on April 5. So that's this upcoming Saturday. So that's this Saturday, Saturday, April 5. Wonderful. Anything that people do, they need to register. Do? They need to do anything else? Nourse, it is free for everyone to attend. Wow. Yeah, anything else that we should know about with Silver State Fair Housing Council, we

Fernanda Heki 27:25
are a resource for every single person out there. We never look down on anyone that calls with a question. It doesn't matter if you're a housing provider, a social service agency, someone from the public. We are there to be a resource, resource for you. And if we do not know if or if we are not the right resource for you, we do have resources that we've gathered throughout or years and throughout attending to resource events. So we have a little bit of everything that we might be able to assist you with. So you might say, Hey, this is happening. Well, we're not the right agency for you. Let me refer you to legal services, or let me refer you to Nevada, 211, right and more resources for you. So if, if we're not the right agency for you, we would like to point you to a resource. Yeah,

Heidi Griffith 28:18
and I love that. That's I will speak from experience. We were really digging deep to find out who we could contact in fair housing space in Nevada. When things started to change and I got it, everybody answered the phone. You guys have been super responsive, and you're out there doing the work, so we can't thank you enough for being here

Roland Daniels 28:41
today. Thank you. Thank

Fernanda Heki 28:42
you for having me and anyone that needs to give us a call. Give us a call because we answer the phone. Yes, they talk to real people.

Heidi Griffith 28:48
They do. They do so again. Thanks Fernanda and the entire team at Silver State Fair Housing Council for the incredible work they do and for joining us here today. If anything we talked about has sparked a question or you'd like to learn more, you can feel free to reach out to us by phone. You can text us, we're at 702-210-2057, we'll get that information over to you. And what I'm going to actually do is post some stuff on mortgage matters, radio, on Facebook that will get a direct link to Silver State Fair Housing Council. I will get it all out of my mouth as well. We'll

Roland Daniels 29:22
be back next Sunday at 7:30am right here on K, U, N, V, 91.5, and with another great show lined up until then, stay informed, stay encouraged and stay true to yourself and your mind. Bye, you.