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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 23, 2015)
Opinion Fair Housing’s Unfinished Business “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ernie F oster Founder/Publisher B oBBie D ore F oster Executive Editor J erry F oster Advertising Manager C hristen M C C urDy News Editor P atriCia i rvin Graphic Designer a rashi y oung D onovan M. s Mith Reporters M oniCa J. F oster Seattle Office Coordinator J ulie K eeFe s usan F rieD Photographers 2015 MERIT AWARDS WINNER The Skanner has received 20 NNPA awards since 1998 The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 E-mail: info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicit- ed. © 2015 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE- SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. To view The Skanner website on your mobile device, scan this QR code • Local news • Opinions • Jobs, Bids • Sports • Entertainment • Music reviews • Bulletin board • RSS feeds I n early September, public poli- cy experts, housing advocates, civil rights leaders, academi- cians and others came together for three days to listen, learn and craft a way forward to advance housing rights and opportunities. Convened by HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Oppor- tunity, the conference held Sept. 1-3 celebrated major milestones in the fight for fair housing, recalled noteworthy achievements and itemized all that still remains to be accomplished. As co-sponsor of the 1968 Fair Housing Act (FHA), Walter Mondale, former vice president and Minnesota Senator, termed the Act’s passage as “one of the great miracles in modern history.” His opening keynote address also spoke to contemporary challenges to dismantle residential segrega- tion and governmental policies that deny equal housing. “The Fair Housing Act has un- finished business,” noted Mon- dale. “When high-income Black families cannot qualify for ap- plied loans and are steered away from White suburbs, the goals of the Fair Housing Act are not ful- filled.” “When the federal and state gov- ernments will pay to build new suburban highways, streets, sew- ers, school and parks but then al- low these communities to exclude affordable housing, the goals of the Fair Housing Act are not ful- filled,” continued Mondale. Many of Mondale’s concerns were echoed by other presenters. For example, according to Attor- ney General Loretta Lynch, in just Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist the last three years, Justice Depart- ment’s Civil Rights Division filed more than 100 lawsuits, including 69 pattern or practices lawsuits, to combat housing and lending discrimination. Housing testing, a Steven Rosenbaum, head of hous- ing and civil enforcement at the Justice Department’s civil rights division, warned of more redlin- ing cases. “Based on what is on my docket right now, stayed tuned,” said Rosenbaum. “There are still lenders who seem to think it is OK to steer minority borrow- ers to certain loan officers or cer- tain brokers who they know will charge more.” Later this month, new mort- gage data will be released as part of the annual Home Mortgage Dis- closure Act report. One of the few resources that details mort- gathering and HUD Justice’s full support. The new rule, announced this past July, clarifies and simplifies existing fair housing obligations. By creating a streamlined Assess- ment of the Fair Housing planning process, HUD hopes communities will be helped to analyze their own local challenges to fair hous- ing choice and their own goals and priorities to address remain- ing barriers to fair housing in their communities. Also voicing support for HUD’s new rule was Wade Henderson, President and CEO of the Lead- ‘When high-income Black families cannot qualify for applied loans and are steered away from White suburbs, the goals of the Fair Housing Act are not fulfilled’ key tool used to determine wheth- er housing providers are comply- ing with federal fair housing laws, has resulted in more than $13 mil- lion in damages and civil penalties awarded since 1991. “One investigation found that a nationwide mortgage lender has systematically charged higher in- terest rates to Hispanic and Afri- can-American borrowers,” noted Lynch. “Another revealed that city officials, law enforcement and a local housing authority in Los Angeles County had engaged in a targeted campaign to discourage African-Americans from moving to and living in the area by enforc- ing the Housing Choice Voucher program in a prejudicial manner.” In another conference session, gage lending by race and ethnicity, the most recent report – for 2013 – showed low levels of lending for borrowers of color. Further, when mortgage loans were approved for Black and Latino consumers, the vast majority were backed by gov- ernment-insured programs from FHA, VA or USDA – and very few from the private sector. The pri- vate sector exclusion means more hard-earned money is taken out of the pockets from borrowers of color as government-backed mort- gages are more expensive. In the aftermath of the U.S. Su- preme Court’s decision that up- held the use of disparate impact studies as a tool to fight for fair housing and a new HUD rule, At- torney General Lynch offered the ership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 200 national organizations. “We need HUD to continue its AFFH enforcement efforts . . . To send a strong signal to ju- risdictions that it’s serious about compliance on this issue,” said Henderson. “And HUD needs all of us to engage with local govern- ments in the coming few years to hold them accountable, and to also push to see that HUD itself has the capacity it needs to do its job in the right way.” In 2015, our quest for fair hous- ing is far from finished. And the journey ahead will require the same level of principled fervor and determination that was amassed many years ago. We Must Keep the Voting Rights Act Alive O n Sept. 15, the NAACP’s “America’s Journey for Justice” march arrived in Washington, DC – after an 860- mile journey from Selma, Ala- bama. Over eight weeks, hundreds have participated to demand fed- eral protection of civil rights for all Americans. Last month, I joined the partici- pants to kick off the march at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama. Just 50 years ago, the bridge was the backdrop of Bloody Sun- day – when some 600 civil rights activists, marching in defiance of segregationist repression, were brutally attacked by law enforce- ment. That fateful Sunday shocked the conscience of Americans every- where. It played an integral part in our nation’s long fight to secure the full measure of equality, digni- ty, and opportunity. While the extraordinary prog- ress we have made in this fight over the last five decades cannot be denied, in every corner of our country profound inequalities re- main. It’s present in our income gap, where the average White family has accumulated seven times the wealth of the average Black fam- ily. It’s present in our democracy gap, where too many Americans still face barriers when accessing the ballot box. It’s present in our Jeff Merkley United States Senator justice gap – when all too often Black communities get treated dif- ferently by police and our criminal justice system. The time has come for us as a nation to close these persistent gaps – to be bolder and better in securing full rights for all of our what their skin color is. We must also work in a biparti- san manner to safeguard the hard- won rights of minority voters and restore the integrity of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). For the past 50 years, the VRA has expanded minority partici- pation in elections by removing first-generation barriers to ballot access, such as literacy tests and poll taxes. It has also tackled second-gener- ation barriers to voting — like at- large elections and gerrymander- ing — that are designed to dilute minority voting power. At least 10 states that had been covered by Section 5 of the VRA introduced new restrictive legislation that would make it harder for minority voters to cast a ballot citizens. In Congress, we need to do our part. We should enact education reform and make college afford- able again. We should reform our criminal justice system to make it more fair and more safe. We must ensure that everyone who is willing to work hard has the chance to get a good living-wage job – no matter what their name is, where they live, who they love, or Page 2 September 23, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Since the VRA was passed, Congress has, time and again, re- authorized the law, most recently, in 2006, when we voted to extend it for another 25 years. Unfortu- nately, in 2013, the Supreme Court struck down key provisions of the VRA in Shelby County V. Hold- er. In the wake of the decision, access to our most fundamental right is suffering. In the last two years alone, at least 10 states that had been covered by Section 5 of the VRA introduced new restric- tive legislation that would make it harder for minority voters to cast a ballot. We cannot let our civil rights laws return to once again being, as Dr. King said before the passage of the Voting Rights Act, mere “dignity without strength.” It is our responsibility in Congress to pass legislation to protect and de- fend the right to vote for all Amer- icans. In addition to these poli- cy changes, we need a societal change. As a nation, as a people, we must stop hiding from hard truths about race. We must recog- nize the persistent inequalities we face are not a Black problem or a Brown problem, it’s an American problem. We must remember that Black Lives Matter. More important- ly, we must act like Black Lives Matter – not just when it comes to policing, but in our classrooms, in our workplaces, in our courts, and in our voting booths. Although the “Journey to Jus- tice” march is complete, our com- mitment to its purpose has not wavered. Our effort to ensure full equality goes on. We will keep fighting to balance the scales of justice, to roll back roadblocks to opportunity, and to extend the full promise of America to every American.
