Opinion
Fair Housing’s Unfinished Business
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
B ernie F oster
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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.