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Cities are encouraged to have staff trained on an annual basis to keep up with <br />current issues and changes in the law. Ideas for fair housing trainers include local HUD <br />office staff, legal services staff, and community organizations specializing in fair housing <br />laws. <br />Project Planning/Investments <br />barriers to affordable housing ... may <br />Major city projects, whether housing, <br />transportation, or economic development, <br />have huge impacts - both good and bad - on <br />the surrounding community. While <br />community planning and development <br />departments look directly at needs for <br />housing and possible barriers to meeting <br />those needs, "the fair housing perspective <br />focuses as much on the causes of needs of <br />groups or persons protected by the Fair <br />Housing Act as it does on the needs <br />themselves. Thus, [while] the explanation of <br />contain a good deal of relevant analysis of <br />impediments, [it] may not go far or deep enough into factors that have made poor housing <br />conditions more severe for certain groups." 15 <br />Accordingly, cities should have a clearly defined and consistent procedure for examining <br />the fair housing impact of city projects, not just the impact on the affordable housing stock <br />(though the two often overlap). In particular, cities should be using this procedure on any <br />project that is receiving city assistance (financial or otherwise). It's important that cities be <br />15 HUD's Fair Housing Planning Guide, Pg 2-19 <br />24 <br />