Making Wall Street face the music: Enforcing the mandate to affirmatively further fair housing

AlterNet

Lisa Rice // February 24, 2010

“It is an old maxim and a very sound one that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. . . I am decidedly opposed to the people’s money being used to pay the fiddler.”

President Abraham Lincoln made this profound statement in 1837, yet it remains applicable today. The people have once again bailed out financial institutions paying for the dalliances and excesses of Wall Street. Those on Main Street never got invited to the soirees but they are footing the bill – to the tune of $9.7 trillion by one Bloomberg estimate.

Indeed, over the past two years, everyday Americans have found little reason to sing or dance as news of the arrogance and greed of those in the financial sector seems never ending. Just when we think we’ve heard the worst, another ball drops. Just when we thought big bankers were sufficiently chagrined by the anger of hard-working taxpayers, we’re told that big Wall Street firms are gearing up for another round of ridiculously high and undeserved bonuses. It has seemed that there is little that the government or the public can do to make financial institutions benefiting from the public’s generosity place the interests of consumers and communities above those of their own. But, hope does spring eternal in an often overlooked provision of an important civil rights statute.

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Frisco council votes to support reduced-rent apartments

Dallas Morning News

Valerie Wigglesworth // February 17, 2010

More than 100 people turned out Tuesday to voice opposition to two proposed apartment complexes in Frisco.

The planned complexes are dependent on acceptance into the state's Housing Tax Credit program, which provides federal tax incentives to developments with rents at below-market rates.

The complexes also would set aside a certain number of units for Section 8 voucher-holders from the Dallas Housing Authority.

Late into Tuesday night, the City Council discussed the projects and spent more than an hour in executive session consulting with the city’s attorney. Just before midnight, the council voted 4-to-1 to write letters supporting the projects to the state, which will decide in July which projects get funded. City support is key in the developers’ applications to the state for funding.

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Galveston Public Housing Redevelopment Issues

Galveston County Daily News

Rhianon Meyers // February 15, 2010

The Galveston Open Government Project, a watchdog group critical of the Galveston Housing Authority, has sent a direct appeal to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, urging him to freeze all federal funding to the agency and order officials to develop a countywide housing authority.

David Stanowski, cofounder of the group, wrote to Secretary Shaun Donovan that the housing authority is violating fair housing laws by concentrating public housing on the island.

Dispersing public housing throughout the more affluent areas of Galveston County, instead of concentrating it in Galveston, will give public housing residents a “better chance to escape from poverty,” he wrote.

“Rebuilding public housing in the only city within Galveston County trapped in a long-term state of decline, and just beginning a multiyear recovery from a hurricane, also forces its tenants to live in the city with the lowest median household income, the highest crime rate, and one of the lowest-rated school systems in the county,” Stanowski wrote.

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Farm Worker Housing Settlement

From: Bangor Daily News

Sharon Kiley Mack / February 16, 2010

MILBRIDGE, Maine — A lawsuit involving the town of Milbridge and Mano en Mano, a local nonprofit, was settled in U.S. District Court last week, a move expected by all parties.

Magistrate Judge Margaret J. Kravchuk ordered that all details be completed within 30 days, at which time the suit filed by Mano en Mano will be dismissed.

The lawsuit, initiated last summer, was based on alleged violations of the federal Fair Housing Act. Mano en Mano, a nonprofit advocacy group, was using $1.6 million in federal grant funds to construct a housing unit for permanent agricultural workers.

When Milbridge voters in June 2009 approved a moratorium on such facilities, Mano en Mano sued the town.

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Why Chattanooga is Trying to Stop Apartments

Chattanoogan.com
January 20, 2010

Mayor Littlefield says the street for the Fairmount apartments is too narrow, but until now the city has not shown any concern about the street. The Fairmount apartments have been in the same area for over 30 years, and no city official including the now second term mayor had a problem with the area. The only reason he and others are interested now is because of the two- and three-story homes being built near the Fairmount Apartments. His only concern is that with the reconstruction of the Fairmount apartments the property value of the enormous homes being built will be lowered. The Chattanooga Housing Authority has assured everyone that all applicants will be screened thoroughly prior to granting them housing.

He says he has spoken to HUD about his concern, but he failed to say that HUD sent representatives from the regional office to walk the site. The HUD representatives have said Chattanooga Housing Authority’s plan for 36 apartments is acceptable and doable.

He says there are no grocery stores nearby, but what grocery stores are currently being visited by the residents living on Valentine Circle and other areas near the Fairmount property?

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Transport Equity & Federal Funding

DC.StreetsBlog.org
Elana Schor // January 27, 2010

The Obama administration's warning that the Bay Area has jeopardized federal stimulus funding for its Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) project could have national consequences for other urban transit proposals that risk harming low-income riders, civil rights and transit advocates predicted yesterday.

Several Bay Area advocacy groups briefed the media on the civil-rights complaint they filed against the OAC, which the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) heeded last week in a letter [PDF] that threatened to yank $70 million in stimulus money from the project unless planners comply with federal equity rules.

Stuart Cohen, executive director of TransForm, said advocates' victorious bid to push Bay Area's transit planners to examine more cost-effective and equitable alternatives to the OAC would "have a ripple effect" as other cities re-examine how their transit plans would affect lower-income and minority riders.

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Changes to Project Fail to Soothe Homeowners

GreenvilleOnline.com
Rudolph Bell // January 14, 2010

Greenville planners initially recommended against an Atlanta developer's controversial proposal to build affordable housing along Augusta Street near the intersection with Mauldin Road.

And now its proposal goes a lot further toward satisfying Greenville's new guidelines for multifamily housing, said Jean Pool, manager of planning and development for the city. “We've been looking at it, and at this point from what we can tell it does a much better job of meeting the guidelines than the last one,” Pool said.

Neighbors, however, fear the government-subsidized development would bring traffic and crime and say its footprint and setback still run afoul of the guidelines.

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