Fwd: Maine State Housing Authority--testers needed

[Larry Dansinger]

In case you want to be a tester for fair housing:
>
> ---- Dolgormaa Hersom <dhe...@Unitedwaygp.org> wrote:
>> Please see the message below and contact George Sotiropoulos if
>> you are interested in this project.
>>
>> From: Sotiropoulos, George [mailto:gsotir...@ptla.org]
>> Sent: Monday, November 15, 2010 2:44 PM
>> To: Dolgormaa Hersom
>> Subject: Hello from Pine Tree
>>
>>
>> Dolgormaa Hersom,
>>
>> My name is George Sotiropoulos and I am a staff attorney at Pine
>> Tree Legal Assistance, Inc. in Portland. As you may or may not
>> know Pine Tree is currently conducting Fair Housing tests
>> throughout the state of Maine. I have recently become the Fair
>> Housing Testing coordinator and saw that LANA is listed as one of
>> our partners for this project. I am reaching out to you in hopes
>> that you may be able to help me recruit testers for the project.
>> Any way that you could help in reaching out to the general public
>> in Maine would truly be appreciated whether it be through an
>> email, a posting, or even allowing me to come speak for a few
>> minutes at any meetings you think would be beneficial. I have
>> attached a flyer we are currently using to this email and have
>> provided a description of the project below as well. Thank you so
>> much for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.
>>
>> Here is a brief rundown of the project that you can use in an email:
>>
>> Help Fight Housing Discrimination and get paid!
>>
>> Pine Tree Legal Assistance is looking for volunteers to become
>> fair housing testers throughout the state of Maine.
>>
>> Fair Housing Testing: Fair housing testing involves matching a
>> protected tester (person of color, immigrant, person/s with
>> children, person with apparent disabilities) and a control tester
>> and sending them to contact landlords, observe/record and report
>> their observations at each step of the process. Afterwards,
>> attorneys here at Pine Tree, will compare the results, and if
>> there is strong evidence of discrimination based on different
>> treatment, we will file a fair housing complaint with the Maine
>> Human Rights Commission. This is a great opportunity to learn
>> about how the Maine Human Rights Act and the Federal Fair Housing
>> Act apply to fair housing rights here in Maine.
>>
>> Tester Qualifications: Neutral and accurate observers, ability to
>> record and report information completely and accurately, no record
>> of felonies or misdemeanors relating to credibility (crimes of
>> dishonesty); should be available for review and signature of
>> complaints and interview by investigator.
>>
>> Compensation: You will be paid $25 for attending the training
>> (about 2 hours long), payable after completion of first test, and
>> then paid $35 per test so first payment would be for $60. If there
>> is fact-finding in the case at which the tester's presence is
>> requested, you will be paid a modest witness fee as well.
>>
>> If you are interested or know anyone else who is please contact me
>> via email to gsotir...@ptla.org or by calling my office at
>> 207-774-8211 ext. 1234 as soon as possible.
>>
>> We will be testing all over Maine and usually work with our
>> testers to give them assignments close to where they live and
>> times that work with their schedule. The whole time taken to do
>> the test is usually however long it takes to make a phone call to
>> the landlord and the time it takes to physically go down and check
>> the apartment out. The last tester we had did the whole thing in
>> under 2 hours.
>>
>> We will be holding training sessions every week with the next
>> session being held Tuesday, November 30th at 5 pm at the Pine Tree
>> Legal Assistance Office in Portland. I may also be able to train
>> small groups of testers at times other than our scheduled weekly
>> trainings. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> George Sotiropoulos Esq.
>> Fair Housing Testing Coordinator
>> Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Inc.
>>
>> <<Fair Housing Tester Flyer 2010.pdf>>