April 19, 2017 The Skanner Page 7
FAIR HOUSING
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
SPECIAL SECTION
Zillow
SEATTLE
—
Even
though a mortgage pay-
ment is more affordable
than a rent payment on
a monthly basis, renters
say they can’t buy a home
due to the pricey down
payment, according to
the first Zillow@ Hous-
ing Aspirations ReportT
(ZHAR)ii.
Almost 70 percent of
renters surveyed cite the
“
largest generation of
Americans -- millennials
-- are coming of age and
starting to think about
buying a home and set-
tling down. Rents are also
at record highs, costing
almost 50 percent of the
median income in some
cities. Making a month-
ly mortgage payment is
cheaper than a monthly
rent payment in all but
two of the 35 largest U.S.
metros, but first rent-
Making a monthly mortgage
payment is cheaper than a
monthly rent payment in
all but two of the 35 largest
U.S. metros
down payment as a great-
er barrier to homeown-
ership than debt, job se-
curity and qualifying for
a mortgage. Just over half
of renters cite qualifying
for a mortgage as a bar-
rier to homeownership,
and half say debt is hold-
ing them back. Almost 40
percent of renters say job
security is keeping them
from buying a home.
The U.S. homeowner-
ship rate is near an all-
time low and has been
falling since 2004, al-
though members of the
ers need to save enough
money for a down pay-
ment.
The Zillow Housing
Aspirations Report, a
semi-annual
survey
sponsored by Zillow and
conducted by IPSOS, asks
10,000 renters and home-
owners in 20 metros
across the country about
their views on homeown-
ership and their person-
al housing expectations
going forward.
See DOWN PAYMENT on
page 8
PHOTO BY JERRY FOSTER
Down Payment
Holding Back
Renters from
Buying a Home
Will Federal Lawmakers Turn Back the
Clock on Fair Housing?
By Charlene Crowell
NNPA Newswire Columnist
W
hen future generations read the history
of the nation’s first Black President, I be-
lieve there will be greater acknowledge-
ment of his administration’s significant
accomplishments. For now, however, an undeni-
able strategic war is underway to dismantle the
very progress President Obama achieved.
General market media outlets have extensively
reported on reforms or repeals of the Affordable
Care Act, Wall Street reform and the future of the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It is equal-
ly important to share that a key Obama regulation
that spoke to the future of fair housing is again un-
der assault on Capitol Hill.
A 2015 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) rule finally delivered on the
promises first made with the 1968 enactment of the
Fair Housing Act. While the Act outlawed housing
discrimination, it also included another import-
ant legal requirement. To advance the purposes of
the Act, federal agencies and federal grantees were
also to forge inclusive and diverse communities as
a means to reverse America’s housing history of
segregation and Jim Crow.
Known as “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Hous-
ing” (AFFH), the HUD rule requires that cities,
counties and states receiving funds for housing
and community development engage in a planning
process to help them take meaningful and delib-
erate actions to overcome historic segregation
patterns, promote fair housing choice and create
inclusive communities free from discrimination.
Two HUD tools were shared to assist communities
in the planning process, Data and Mapping and an
Assessment of Fair Housing.
AFFH affects all public housing authorities and
three other popular HUD programs: Communi-
ty Development Block Grants CDBG), Emergency
Solution Grants (ESG), and Housing Opportunities
for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA).
From its beginning, HUD’s AFFH rule was met
with attack and multiple legislative attempts to re-
peal it. The latest attempt is The Local Zoning De-
cisions Protection Act of 2017. If enacted, it would
nullify the HUD rule. The bill would also ban fed-
eral funds from being used for any federal data-
base that contains geospatial information on com-
munity racial disparities and disparities in access
to affordable housing.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, the bill has
See HUD on page 9
Proposal to Ban No-Cause Evictions
Passes Oregon House
PHOTO BY JERRY FOSTER
By KRISTENA HANSEN
Associated Press
SALEM, Ore. — A controversial
proposal to ban most no-cause
evictions while giving cities
the freedom to adopt their own
rent-control policies passed the
Oregon House April 4 on a 31-27
vote.
House Bill 2004 is now before
the Senate. Its passage out of the
House followed weeks of debate
between lawmakers, many of
whom have been inundated with
personal stories of hardship by
Oregon tenants and landlords.
The proposal includes a web of
exemptions and special circum-
stances, mostly for the benefit of
landlords. But the overall goal is
to put a stop to what’s become an
ongoing narrative of people liv-
ing month-to-month seeing their
rents suddenly spiked or leases
abruptly terminated — often dis-
placing them back into a costly
rental market.
Democratic Rep. Karin Power,
a freshman lawmaker from the
Portland suburb of Milwaukie
and chief sponsor of HB 2004,
told her colleagues about how a
72-year-old constituent and her
husband were evicted three times
without cause within the last year
and half.
“Rents
are
sky-rocketing
throughout our community,”
Powers said. “I cannot imagine
the stress and anxiety this has
caused her, and others like her
who have also asked for my help.
Each move cuts ever-deeper into
their savings.”
Under HB 2004, no-cause evic-
tions would be allowed during
the first six months, with 30 days’
written notice, for tenants living
month to month.
After the six-month mark, no-
cause evictions would be banned.
If 90 days’ notice is provided,
landlords may evict month-to-
month tenants for specified rea-
sons, such as repairs, renovations
or sale of the property, and they
must also pay outgoing tenants
See EVICTIONS on page 8