On Friday, May 2, 2008, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin met in his Chicago office with South Suburban Housing Center’s Board President Barbara Moore and Executive Director John Petruszak, to accept the 2008 Fair Housing Achievement Award announced at the Housing Center’s National Fair Housing Month’s dinner celebration in April. South Suburban Housing Center is the fair housing enforcement and housing counseling agency serving the south metro region since 1975.

Senator Durbin was honored by SSHC for his sponsorship and introduction of legislation, the Housing Fairness Act of 2007, to increase federal support for national fair housing enforcement programs.

When introducing this bill in the Senate last June, Durbin stated, “Every American deserves equal access to housing, yet millions of fair housing violations occur each year and discrimination continues to worsen….without the significant increase in funding proposed in today’s legislation, the program will not be able to operate effectively.”

Recently Senator Durbin was featured in a video tribute commemorating the 40th anniversary of the passage of the Fair Housing Act released on April 30, 2008, by the Senate Democratic Communications Center, with Senators Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) along with Congressmen John Lewis (D-GA-5) and John Conyers (D-MI-14).

In the video Durbin states, “If we are really going to strive for the kind of opportunity which is the hallmark of America we really have to talk about economic opportunity. That means making certain that people have an opportunity for a job that gives them a chance to raise their family and a decent place to live, in a safe neighborhood. And that is why the Fair Housing Act is so important.”