Multifamily Florida - Summer 2020 - 12

M U LT I FA M I LY

F L O R I D A

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processes for housing discrimination complaints. This
legislation has been successfully opposed several times
over the years but this year had more momentum in
both the House and Senate.
This momentum is likely because the Florida
Commission on Human Relations was strongly
advocating in favor of this legislation and claimed HUD
funding could be cut if this bill was not passed during
the 2020 session. The commission argued that Florida's
existing law - requiring an individual to exhaust the
administrative process before proceeding to court with
a housing discrimination claim - was in violation of
federal law. As a result, the legislation was passed by
both the House and Senate. If this bill is signed by the
governor, it will become effective immediately.
Other legislation, passed under direction from the governor, will require employers to use the federal E-Verify
system. E-Verify is a federal database that was designed to
aid employers in identifying undocumented immigrants
who are ineligible to work in the U.S. SB 664 (Sen. Tom
Lee, R-20) was passed by both the House and Senate.

Once signed into law by the governor, the legislation will become effective on July 1, and will require
all government employers to use the federal E-Verify
system. Private employers who decide not to use
E-Verify will be required to keep a three-year record
of the documents used by workers to complete an I-9
form to verify employment eligibility.
All things considered, FAA and the Florida apartment industry had a very successful 2020 legislative
session. A special thanks to all the FAA members who
took time to travel to Tallahassee for FAA's annual
Legislative Conference. Your advocacy efforts made
a critical impact and set the association up for a truly
banner year.
As we begin to set our eyes on the 2021 session,
FAA encourages members who are interested in
attending next year's Legislative Conference or
would like to help FAA formulate the association's
legislative platform for the 2021 legislative session,
to contact Amanda Gill at Amanda@faahq.org for
more information.

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Multifamily Florida - Summer 2020

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