|
Many people have been silenced by years of
prejudice and oppression. As a defense mechanism, some have even allowed
themselves to become desensitized to the pain of discrimination. It is
often the opinion of a victim that one who discriminates will never learn
the error of his ways, and the cycle of discrimination will continue.
This underreporting is reflected in the 2003 Nationwide Trends Report
recently released by the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA).
I have spoken with several of HOME’s clients
who were denied housing due to their membership in a protected class. When
asked why they don’t want to open discrimination cases they often answer
because if the landlord doesn’t want them there, they don’t want to live
there – so what’s the use in fighting for an apartment you no longer
want? When this happens, I try to explain that they don’t have to fight
to live in the place where the landlord discriminated in order to report
the crime that was committed against them. HOME is not only fighting for
apartments, but we are fighting for civil rights.
There are several other agencies that also
fight for housing rights, but on a national level. NFHA is an umbrella
organization whose members are local and regional fair housing agencies.
Recently, NFHA released its 2003 Fair Housing Trends Report analyzing
discrimination complaints from 2002. The data was collected from NFHA
member agencies nationwide, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and 95 state and
local government agencies.
The report does not reflect the actual
number of occurrences of housing discrimination on rental, sales, lending,
and insurance marketplaces but reflects reported incidents only. Although
housing discrimination persists nationwide, it is severely underreported;
only a little more than 25,000 people file housing discrimination
complaints annually. In 2002, NFHA member agencies received a total of
17,543 complaints, HUD received 2,511 complaints and the DOJ received 63
complaints. Of these complaints, those based on race made up 30 percent
of the total, disability made up 27 percent, and familial status (the
presence of children) made up 15 percent. These three categories account
for nearly 75 percent of all discrimination complaints.
Underreported,
under enforced
According to the
Report, the federal Fair Housing Act has not been sufficiently enforced by
the federal government. One illustration of the government’s lack of
commitment to enforcement is that the primary source of funding for all
the private fair housing organizations in the nation, the Fair Housing
Initiative Program (FHIP), has never been funded at more than $25 million
a year. Despite having to share these paltry resources, in 2002, private
agencies handled two times the number of complaints received by all
government agencies combined. These organizations will still have to
compete for the $12 to $25 million that HUD has proposed to allocate for
enforcement in fiscal year 2004.
The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)
Program is also a source of funding for fair housing organizations.
Communities receiving these funds are required to address housing
discrimination in all of its forms. Of the 1,075 entitlement
jurisdictions in the US, there are very few that actually have programs
that address a community’s fair housing concerns. NFHA asserts that more
than 1,000 communities (including Buffalo) could be doing much more to
eliminate residential segregation if each CDBG recipient pushed education
and enforcement of the federal Fair Housing Act in their neighborhoods.
Because of the limited funding allocated to
fair housing, organizations often lack the resources to provide sufficient
education and enforcement to their communities. Some private fair housing
organizations have had to close down because of lack of funds, and many
more will probably follow suit if HUD does not request an increase in FHIP
funding or change the application process.
If discrimination is so prevalent, why
aren’t its victims making complaints? According to the Trends Report it
is possible that some people don’t always realize discrimination has
occurred. Some forms of discrimination are so subtle that potential
renters or buyers don’t realize what is being disguised with a smile and
handshake. Another reason many do not report discrimination is because
they believe their complaints will not change anything.
There are tools available so victims of
discrimination can fight what HOME’s Community Education Specialist Anne
Huiner calls the “…twin evils of discrimination and despair.” These tools
are education and enforcement. Not only is it the job of the fair housing
agency to educate the community to recognize discrimination, and help
people feel safe and confident enough to report discrimination, but
agencies have to be able to enforce the fair housing laws that were put in
place to protect all of us.
Recognizing
discrimination
Private fair housing organizations reported
14,483 complaints of discrimination in rental housing that included:
landlords lying about the availability of units; refusing to reasonably
accommodate persons with a disability; quoting higher rents or security
deposits; segregating different races, ages or families with children in a
certain part of a complex; restricting access to property amenities or
common areas; or attempting to evict white tenants who have
African-American, Hispanic, or Asian visitors.
A home
seeker does not know that a landlord cannot ask him how many children he
has, or their ages. A client with HIV is told that she must disclose her
illness in order to ensure the safety of others living in the apartment
building. A women experiencing escalating sexual harassment at the hands
of her landlord stays silent because of fear of retribution. These are
real life scenarios that were reported to HOME’s fair housing specialists.
The Report
concludes that in order to continue the fight against scenarios of housing
discrimination such as these, our communities need to be educated, federal
funding needs to be increased and properly allocated, and the HUD needs to
train its investigators and attorneys, and become much more efficient in
case processing or give the job to an agency that can handle it.
A Hispanic gentleman once told a member of
HOME staff, “If I had to report every time I faced discrimination I’d have
to report my whole life.” Unfortunately, this statement is true for many
of us. What could be even more unfortunate is that this statement may one
day be true even for our children if something doesn’t change quickly. As
a community which has pledged itself to fight discrimination, we can no
longer sit silent and let this deadly offense kill our hopes, dreams, and
freedoms. |
