Jefferson County residents invited to celebrate Fair Housing Month
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STEUBENVILLE -- Jefferson County residents are invited to celebrate Fair Housing Month by learning more about their rights and responsibilities as well as the complaint process at a series of free seminars.
The seminars, sponsored by the Steubenville Fair Housing Practices Commission, the Ohio Valley Fair Housing Center and the Fair Housing Program of Jefferson County, will be held Tuesday through April 17.
Highlighting this year's program is an appearance by Willistine Tarsha Harris, a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division's Housing and Civil Enforcement Section.
Harris earned a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice from Alabama State University, where she received Latin honors. After college, Harris worked as a teacher at an alternative school in Washington, D.C.
For the past 24 years, she has held various positions in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. As a trial attorney in the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section, she works to enforce the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Her day-to-day duties include managing cases in various stages of litigation as she works to protect citizens' rights to housing free from discrimination, fair lending from creditors, discrimination-free places of public accommodations, servicemembers' rights regarding protection of credit/property, and religious entities' religious freedom rights.
Before becoming a trial attorney, Harris worked in various legal support staff roles including paralegal specialist, investigator and supervisor of the legal support staff. After several years in the supervisory role, she enrolled in law school as a part-time student and maintained her full-time position at DOJ. She earned a juris doctor degree from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. After graduation, she began working as an honors attorney through the Attorney General's Honors Program.
She has served in many ways at DOJ, including: DOJ Ambassador, DOJ mentor, the Civil Rights Division's Diversity Council, the One Division, Fair Housing Testing Program tester, general elections monitor with the Voting Section and Department of Justice Association of Black Attorneys, and also volunteered for several working groups focusing on recruitment, hiring and training.
As an Abramson Foundation Mentor, Harris works to influence and guide a sophomore studying criminal justice at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University.
The workshop schedule is:
— Dillonvale: 2 p.m. Tuesday, Dillonvale-Mount Pleasant Branch, Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County, 192 Cole St., Dillonvalle;
— Island Creek Township: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Island Creek Township Building, township trustees meeting, 415 township Road 375, Steubenville;
— Steubenville: noon Wednesday, Four Seasons Ministries, 129 School St., Steubenville;
— Dillonvale: 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dillonvale Village Building (Village Council meeting), 135 School St., Dillonvale: and
— Steubenville: 9:45 a.m. and 10:35 a.m. April 17, Steubenville High School Auditorium, 420 N. Fourth St., Steubenville.
If you would like to schedule a fair housing presentation/workshop for your organization or for more information, call (740) 283-6000, ext. 1700.