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The early 1980’s was a
time of great trepidation in America. While Americans were fearful of
nuclear war, they were also dealing with one of the worst economic periods
in this nation’s history. Buffalo, along with other cities in the “Rust
Belt,” was hit incredibly hard by the loss of well paying manufacturing
jobs.
Hard times were felt in
other arenas as well. For example, HOME’s statistics showed a 71 percent
increase in discrimination complaints from 1981 to 1982. 38 percent of
those cases were familial status discrimination. It was, in fact, one of
those complaints that led to an achievement which to this day is still one
of the most monumental in HOME’s history.
In August 1982, a
Buffalo News subscriber was having a hard time with his housing search
because he was running into ads that discriminated against families with
children. He filed a complaint with HOME regarding the apparent hypocrisy
of the News publishing rental ads with discriminatory language
(such as “no children” or “adults preferred”) but at the same time
printing a disclaimer proclaiming “All dwellings advertised are available
on an equal opportunity basis.” In response to this complaint, HOME began
a campaign to eliminate this discrepancy.
On June 22, 1983 the
Buffalo News agreed to HOME’s request to cease publication of housing ads
containing biased language, provided that HOME negotiate similar
agreements with thirteen other publications in the area. On October 24th,
HOME announced a voluntary agreement among thirteen Western New York
publications to stop accepting ads which contained discriminatory
language. The agreement was the largest of its kind in the country. On
December 15th, thirteen more Western New York newspapers
voluntarily joined the agreement, bringing the total to 27 publications
serving nearly 1.1 million households.
HOME not only helped
those searching for housing, it also provided a valuable tool to those who
owned rental property. In the summer of 1982, HOME collaborated with
other local agencies to produce the first edition of A Guide to
Landlords’ Rights. The Guide gave landlords information about how to
find good tenants and how to maintain a healthy landlord/tenant
relationship. The Guide also provided eviction forms and explained the
necessary steps for landlords to take in case the landlord/tenant
relationship didn’t work out.
Civil rights agencies
got a boost in 1983 with the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in
Havens Realty Corp. v. Coleman. Prior to the decision, only
individual victims of discrimination could initiate discrimination
complaints. The decision affirmed that fair housing agencies that had been
“frustrated in their efforts to ensure equal access to housing” by acts of
housing discrimination also had standing to initiate complaints. HOME
first used the precedent set by this decision the same year.
The agency’s change in
standing came in handy as the number of discrimination complaints
continued to rise. The number of clients served by HOME hit a then
high-water mark of 2,008 in 1985, which was an increase of 342 percent
since 1981.
Just like today, nearly
one third of all discrimination complaints involved discrimination against
families with children. For example, a woman was denied housing in
Lewiston because of the presence of her 14-year old son. HOME filed suit
on her behalf against the developer. A settlement was reached which
included a “four-figure payment” for the victim and an affirmative action
agreement with the developer of the complex.
The statistical
increase could possibly be traced to a change in approach from the White
House. The Reagan Administration, showing little concern for civil rights,
had shifted from enforcement of civil rights laws to voluntary compliance,
meaning that there would be little or no repercussions for those broke the
law. So it is conceivable that some landlords would try to skirt the law
if they thought there was a good chance there would be no real punishment.
Many loopholes that
existed in federal fair housing law were closed when the Fair Housing Act
was amended in 1988. The new amendments made familial status and
disability protected classes, and gave the Department of Housing and Urban
Development the power to enforce the statutes.
The Reagan
administration’s stance had a direct influence on Buffalo as well as HOME.
In 1987 the Buffalo News published a series of articles exposing
the failure of Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority (BMHA) to provide
quality low income housing for city residents. The articles showed that
not only had steering resulted in segregated housing developments, but
there were significant differences in quality between developments where
whites and minorities lived. But instead of setting guidelines for the
Housing Authority to remedy the situation, the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development ordered BMHA to write its own new policy.
Frustrated by a lack of
a strong response from HUD, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan asked HOME to
scrutinize the new BMHA policy in early 1988. The analysis found that the
new policy would not only fail to reconcile problems of racial division,
it may actually work to reinforce it. The HOME memorandum stated that the
new policies were “so complex… as to effectively frustrate the efforts of
any external entity to monitor compliance with equal opportunity statutes
and regulations.”
Surprisingly, in April
of 1989 HUD declared that BMHA had been discriminatory in its tenant
selection practices, and gave BMHA an ultimatum: agree to HUD’s
recommendations for change or lose funding. BMHA agreed to conciliate, and
HUD brought forth a plan which was ultimately accepted in May of 1990.
People living in BMHA housing or on the waiting list were given the
option to move to a complex where their race was not predominant.
During a public
hearing, objections were brought forth by politicians, organizations, and
the tenants themselves. One BMHA tenant said she resented “being herded
like cattle”. The primary objection to the plan was that no significant
change could possibly be made when the turnover rate in the nearly
all-white complexes was so low. BMHA said that they would delay
implementation of the plan and try to come up with something else
In an attempt to come
up with a solution to the problem, a HUD-BMHA advisory panel was
established in early 1991. HOME was one of the four community agencies
included on the panel. HOME drafted what was characterized by the Buffalo
News as “a master plan for desegregation”, which included providing
Section 8 vouchers for minority tenants who had been steered to older,
inner city segregated projects. Unfortunately, HUD rejected the proposal
later that same year, and BMHA accepted the original agreement in June
1992.
Change was difficult at
the local level as well. In 1979 HOME and a handful of other agencies
proposed a fair housing ordinance for the City of Buffalo to the Common
Council, but after passing the Common Council, the measure was vetoed by
Mayor James Griffin. A 9-6 vote by the Council in June 1980 was not
enough to override the veto.
In the latter stages of
1988, HOME, at the invitation of three members of the Council, formulated
another municipal fair housing ordinance. The ordinance would have
prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national
origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, lawful
source of income, and familial status and was designed to help the one in
four legitimate victims of housing discrimination who “fall through the
cracks” of the existing framework of federal and state statutes.
Backed by a groundswell
of support and an endorsement from the Buffalo News, the measure was
passed by the Common Council on February 7, 1989 by a 7-5 vote. Sadly,
opponents portrayed the civil rights measure as a law intended to take
away landlords’ rights which would be the death knell of Buffalo. Mayor
Griffin vetoes the ordinance 10 days later, and, as in 1980, Common
Council support was insufficient to override the veto.
Dealings with
governmental bodies notwithstanding, the real measure of HOME’s work is in
its service to victims of discrimination. Between the years of 1985-1987,
HOME reported 1,069 incidents of housing discrimination in Buffalo. The
number of clients served hovered around 2000 per year throughout the
decade of the 1980’s.
The agency was steadied
by the leadership of Scott Gehl, who became executive director in 1982. He
not only was the public face of HOME, but oversaw an agency which doubled
in size by 1991. The agency grew so much, in fact that a new home was
needed.
On September 25, 1989
HOME moved from 1490 Jefferson to the place it currently calls HOME: 700
Main Street in downtown Buffalo. It is there that an agency with nearly 30
years of experience in helping the people of Western New York would grow
exponentially throughout the next decade. |
