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| Short Takes
Justice....Finally! |
One hundred ninety-eight people who worked with two major business improvement districts in New York City while they were homeless during the 1990s have been awarded a total of $816,000 in back wages, along with free savings accounts and legal advice on handling the windfall. The money is the result of a settlement in a seven-year federal class-action lawsuit against the Grand Central Partnership and the 34th Street Partnership. The plaintiffs won in 1998, but received no money because of an appeal. The corporate lawyers who had joined advocates for the homeless on the case agreed to give up more than $1 million in legal fees in order to reach this settlement. (The New York Times, 10/25/00) |
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| Zoning Restrictions Struck Down | The 35-year-old zoning density restrictions of Sunnyvale, TX, a 2,000 resident Dallas-area town, has been struck down on federal civil rights grounds. An August ruling by the Northern District Court of Texas found that the town’s one residential unit per acre zoning requirements not only had a racially discriminatory effect, but were motivated by racially discriminatory intent. Plaintiffs included a Dallas tenant counselor, a construction firm that was denied permission to build a multifamily development and a fair housing organization. (Housing Law Bulletin, September 2000) |
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| HUD Seizes Another Housing Authority | In October, HUD seized control of the Beaumont Housing Authority (BHA) in eastern Texas, citing a pattern of discrimination dating to the 1960s. HUD officials said the BHA sold public housing units to ineligible buyers, failed to use public housing funds to help low-income families, and kept inadequate records on the administration of its programs and its compliance with civil rights laws. In 1992 the authority received $10.6 million for 150 desegregated public housing units, but built only 100, many of which have not been made available to minority tenants. BHA has been ordered to desegregate twice before, in 1980 and 1985. (San Francisco Chronicle, 10/5/00) |
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| Organizing Rights Expanded | A final rule issued by HUD has expanded the organizing rights of Section 8 residents to cover “issues related to their living environment….including activities related to housing and community development.” Certain activities are protected, including distributing leaflets, posting on bulletin boards, and initiating contact with tenants. Owners are also now required to make reasonable space available in the development when tenants request it for organizing activities. (Housing Law Bulletin, August 2000) |
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| Americans Support Affordable Housing | A national study released by Smart Growth America reveals that 66 percent of Americans surveyed would require that all new developments built reserve 15 percent of the units for moderate- and low-income families. In addition, 81 percent would provide tax credits and low-interest loans to revitalize economically depressed cities, suburbs, and rural communities. (Joanne Veto, The Enterprise Foundation, 202-639-9458) |
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| Mayoral Hopefuls Focus on Housing | In a refreshing change of pace for New York City, five Democratic mayoral hopefuls recently discussed affordable housing policy at a forum in Harlem, sponsored by Habitat for Humanity. Though they all lacked specifics, all but one spoke of putting more money into construction, decreasing bureaucracy, appointing a deputy mayor for housing, and aiming for 225,000 new units in the next ten years. (City Limits Fax Weekly, 9/18/00) |
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| Giuliani Changing His Tune? | New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s administration has proposed offering two-year rent subsidies for homeless families in an effort to resolve bottlenecks in the city’s emergency shelter system. The proposal, similar to rental assistance proposals that the Mayor has opposed and even vetoed in the past, is targeted to the employed homeless and those trying to move from welfare to jobs. (The New York Times, 10/12/00) |
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| Now THIS is Fuzzy Math | El Centro de la Raza, a Seattle community-based organization, has been fined $75 a day since July by the city for hosting Tent Village 3, a homeless camp with over 100 residents, without an outdoor encampment permit. While some accuse the camp of anti-social behavior, others praise its residents for being hard-working and having their own code of conduct. The residents recently presented the city with a $2,500 check to apply for a land-use permit. Meanwhile, Seattle’s homeless plan includes housing 50 men a night in its municipal building at $93,000; almost ten times the $9,000-plus in fines imposed on El Centro for providing housing to twice as many people. (Real Change, 9/1-15/00) |
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| Cooperatives: A Tale of Two Cities | As one city adds affordable cooperative housing, another may be losing some. Housing Hope, a nonprofit housing provider in Everett, WA, has unveiled Oakes Avenue Commons, a 20-unit affordable cooperative development for very low-income residents, including homeless people, where they will be able to stay even if their incomes rise. Meanwhile, Ann Arbor, MI is studying ways to keep 2,000 affordable co-ops affordable. The units’ mortgages are due to run out in about 10 years, at which time residents can sell their shares at fair market value. Cooperatives make up about 80 percent of the affordable three bedroom units in the city. (Cooperative Housing Bulletin, September-November 2000) |
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| Employer Housing Benefits: Coming Soon? | Employer-assisted housing benefit programs may help with employee recruitment and retention, suggests a paper by Daniel Hoffman of the Pennsylvania Low Income Housing Coalition and Dr. David Schwartz of Rutgers University. “Employer-Assisted Housing: A Business Friendly But Underutilized Affordable Housing Policy” claims that awareness of employer-assisted housing as a concept is rising, but says there is a lack of readily-accessible standardized housing benefit products with which to promote it. www.policy.rutgers.edu/eah/welcome.html |
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Back to November/December 2000 index.
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