Racism remains

This just goes on and on in this nation. Not long ago, I was told that this same thing happens continually in Dallas, especially as more companies move their headquarters our way. Our continuing racism remains insane, immoral and un-American. No one should ever, ever doubt our nation's need for a contiually renewed Fair Housing Act. Better yet, possibly what we really need is a Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing fair housing policies in the nation. Our battle against racism is not over, far from it. People who insist that things have changed and that the struggle is behind us are simply not right.  The struggle is more challenging than ever, given the "work arounds" and the new strategies to ignore the law. In all of this, I wonder where are the communities of faith?  And frankly, it's time for white folks to step up, speak up and insist on a new day for all of our African American citizens.  The following editorial statement appeared in The New York Times (9-15-15).]

How Segregation Destroys Black Wealth

                  

   

 

Americans commonly — and mistakenly — believe that well-to-do black people no longer face the kind of discrimination that prevents them from living anywhere they can afford. But a federal housing discrimination complaint filed last week by the National Fair Housing Alliance shows that this toxic problem is very much with us, nearly 50 years after Congress outlawed housing discrimination in the Fair Housing Act.

 

The complaint, and the investigations that led to it, shows how real estate agents promote segregation — and deny African-Americans the opportunity to buy into high-value areas that would provide better educations for children and a greater return on their investments.

 

Over the course of nearly a year, the alliance reports, black and white testers posing as home buyers had drastically different experiences when they contacted a real estate company near Jackson, Miss. Agents often declined to show properties to black customers who were better qualified than whites, with higher incomes, better credit scores and more savings for down payments. Meanwhile, white testers who had expressed interest in properties in the majority-black city of Jackson were steered into majority-white communities elsewhere.

 

These problems are not limited to the South. Indeed, another alliance investigation covering a dozen metropolitan areas, including Atlanta, Austin, Birmingham, Chicago, Dayton, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, San Antonio and the District of Columbia, suggests that housing market discrimination is universal.

 

Continue reading here. 

"Not in my back yard". . .and it is a large yard we have!

Dallas housing developer and urban planner, Bob Voelker presents valuable information on a consistent basis from his blog, Fair Housing for Developers.  Voelker pays attention to trends and market realities. 

Recently, he has noted the difficulty experienced by affordable housing developers from all across the country with NIMBYism ("not in my back yard") among neighbors and neighborhood groups who oppose placement of various kinds of affordable housing in proximity to them and/or their property. 

Fact:  no matter how much preparation, advance notice or participation that developers invite, almost every development anywhere near market rate housing or properties faces neighborhood opposition.  That certainly has been true here in Dallas, Texas.

In view of these stories, and many more just like them, from across the U. S., in may be time to modify the Fair Housing Act and other state statutes to define the availability of decent housing as a basic human right. At the end of the day our current experiences as a nation beg the question, "Where are poor people to live?"

Take a look at this limited litany of discrimination and opposition to low-income persons and families.  Many more examples could be produced, but these provide  real insights into the problem. 

Medford, Oregon

Highland Park--Minneapolis, Minnesota area

St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana (racial slurs painted on buildings)

Schereville, Indiana

Durham, North Carolina

Montclair, New Jersey (housing for people with mental health issues)

Clovis, New Mexico

Westchester County, New York

San Francisco, California

Thanks, Bob for the enlightening, but disturbing reports.  Keep up your good work.

Central Dallas CDC News: Dallas Observer report on Downtown affordable housing

The following most interesting column by Dallas Observer writer, Jim Schutze reveals the something of the growing importance of the work of the Central Dallas Community Development Corporation.  Worth your time if you care about affordable housing in Downtown Dallas. 

Dallas City Hall gets whopped upside the head for its low-income housing policy

By Jim Schutze Thursday, Feb 17 2011

Tell me first. To be a cool place to live, what does downtown Dallas need? Action. Tons and tons of people, not all super-rich, not all homeless, either.

But that's the problem with downtown. Rich people in the towers. Desperadoes in the alleys. Long empty sidewalks between.

For that to change, downtown needs to become affordable to jobsians. Not rich. Not poor. Not white, black or brown. Just people with jobs.

Guess what. I think maybe that door just cracked.

In a small room in the bowels of City Hall at 8:30 in the morning on one of those hard weather days last week, an obscure body voted to change direction on the renovation of a handful of old office towers—known as the Atmos Project.

It was the first hint of a whole new thing, and it only happened because some guys whopped the city upside the head with a two-by-four. I will come back to that, of course, because I know you love head-whoppings.

The important thing is this: The city board, whose name is too long for me to mention yet, voted to put way more subsidized low-rent apartments into the Atmos re-development deal than originally planned.

For decades, Dallas has taken federal funds designed to foster low-income housing downtown and used the money instead to make downtown hotsy-totsy. The result is what you see now—notsy.

Click here to read the entire essay and get to the part about the Central Dallas CDC. . .