The 1960s saw an end to legal segregation. People of all racial and ethnic groups are able to attend the same schools, drink from the same water fountains, and live in the same neighborhoods. However, the reality is that in many communities de facto racial segregation still exists. This is especially so in places where people live and work.Any review of America's metropolitan areas shows that African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans and other minorities tend to live outside predominantly white communities. The situation often reflects decisions made by individuals belonging to specific racial groups to live in non-racially-mixed communities. It can also reflect continuing discrimination in the nation's housing markets.

If current demographic trends continue, the racial and ethnic mix of America is going to become even more diverse. The challenge ahead is to ensure that neighborhoods and communities reflect these trends, and that all people regardless of race or color, national origin, gender, with our without disability and regardless of familial status, have freedom to choose the home and neighborhood of their choice. Fair Housing activities, whether through enforcement, education, voluntary programs or a combination of these, respond to a dream unrealized and the vision of a housing market free from discrimination.

HUD and NAR entered into their first Voluntary Affirmative Agreement in 1975, and after several revisions and renewals, the VAMA expired in December of 1996. The VAMA sought to encourage individual real estate firms to take appropriate steps to ensure that their agents followed the fair housing law. The VAMA also encouraged Realtors and real estate firms to support the "spirit of the fair housing law" through a variety of equal housing opportunity programs including outreach, advertising, equal employment practices, safeguards against racial steering and other steps, that helped housing to be marketed on an equal opportunity basis.

As successful and well intended as the VAMA was, it often placed process ahead of results and often worked against its objective of affirmatively furthering fair housing. The VAMA required endless reports and records on the status of member Realtor firms to a degree that left many important fair housing issues unaddressed.

The new HUD/NAR Fair Housing Partnership is results oriented and gives far less attention to process. The new Partnership focuses on the identification and eradication of housing discrimination in our communities. Because housing discrimination issues and priorities differ from community to community, the new national partnership is intentionally flexible and fluid. The HUD/NAR Partnership recognizes that fair housing is a collaborative endeavor requiring shared involvement by partners in activities such as training, self-testing, public education, affirmative marketing and the promotion of housing choice and opportunities across racial and ethnic lines.

The HUD/NAR Fair Housing Partnership is founded on the principle of providing support for and focusing attention on the implementation of local community initiatives. At the national level, HUD and NAR will regularly meet to identify national issues and concerns, develop joint strategies and actions to address housing discrimination, and review successes. In this ongoing fluid and flexible arrangement, the partnership's determinations and actions on fair housing will likely change from year to year.

Because of the varying issues and differing circumstances in local communities, no specific model for a local partnership was developed by HUD and NAR. NAR, local associations and HUD field offices are encouraged to develop local fair housing partnerships based on the following principles of the national partnership:

Sharing responsibility for the achievement of fair housing,

Identifying fair housing issues and concerns,

Developing measurable strategies and actions to address identified issues and concerns,

Evaluating the success of actions taken, and

Determining future strategies and actions based on that evaluation.

This Fair Housing Partnership Guide, while based on the national partnership principles, offers alternative suggestions for developing and implementing partnerships. The Guide also provides helpful advice to those parties interested in ratifying or participating in an existing partnership.