Event Recap
On April 11, Penn IUR held its 14th annual Urban Leadership Forum, “Fair Housing, Fair Cities,” during which it presented the 2018 Urban Leadership Award (ULA) to Elizabeth Julian, Founder and Senior Counsel of the Dallasbased Inclusive Communities Project. Since 2005, the Annual Penn IUR Urban Leadership Award has recognized exemplary thinkers who have demonstrated a vision to revitalize urban centers, respond to urban crises, and champion urban sustainability in the United States and around the globe.
Julian was awarded the 2018 ULA for her work with the Inclusive Communities Project, which in 2015 won a Supreme Court case ruling that policies which even inadvertently cause segregation (“disparate impact”) are illegal under the Fair Housing Act. This landmark ruling will help to fully realize the original goals of the Fair Housing Act to not only prevent individual housing discrimination but also address the decades of systemic discrimination that have led to segregated communities across the country.
Prior to her work with Inclusive Communities, Julian served as Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Clinton administration, and has practiced poverty and civil rights law since the beginning of her career.
The “Fair Housing, Fair Cities” forum featured a discussion between Julian and 2011 Penn IUR Urban Leadership Awardee and Penn IUR Scholar Raphael Bostic, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and former Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Penn IUR Faculty Fellow Wendell Pritchett, Provost and Presidential Professor of Law and Education, University of Pennsylvania, moderated the discussion.
