The skanner., April 18, 2018, Page Page 8, Image 8

Page 8 The Skanner April 18, 2018
FAIR HOUSING
MIRIAM MACHADO-LUCES/NNPA
“I’ve been here for 32
years and I organized on
14th and U Street in the
‘90s. If we talked then,
I could have told you
what was going to hap-
pen in every quadrant,”
he said. “Our focus is
on
displacement—the
economics of land and
housing impact health
and wellness, as people
are moved around this
chessboard.”
Moulden said that Wil-
liams’
story of declining
A once-thriving community of more than 400 residents has
health
during a pro-
been reduced to less than 100 as city officials prepare to build
longed
housing
battle, is
expensive, mixed-use housing that Barry Farm residents fear will
a
familiar
one.
force them out of their homes.
“I’ve seen people get
sick and die in the years [after they
were] forced out of their homes and
that includes mental health issues,”
cont’d from pg 7
Moulden said.
In the mid-’90s, according to Cen-
cidence of asthma, diabetes, and cardio-
sus
data, the district had a popu-
vascular disease.”
lation of 528,000 and by 2015, the
Dominic Moulden, a veteran activist,
population had climbed to 681,170.
housing advocate and resource orga-
nizer for Organizing Neighborhood Washington has seen a net popula-
tion gain of more than 70,000 peo-
Equity (ONE DC), knows Williams well
ple since the 2010 Census and more
and spoke of her challenges and those
faced by thousands of other residents than 100,000 residents since the
2000 Census. In the mid-1990s, the
who have been displaced by rising
city boasted a 72 percent Black pop-
housing costs or who have decided to
fight for their homes in court and on ulation and in 2016, according to the
Census, it now stands at 48 percent.
the streets. ONE DC is a grassroots or-
To the chagrin of the city’s Black
ganization that advocates on behalf of
residents who are in danger of losing residents, “The Chocolate City,” has
become a vanilla swirl, replete with
their homes.
dog parks, street cars, bike lanes and
Moulden said that he’s watched the
city change in significant and seeming- cobbled streets as physical evidence
of the changing demographics.
ly all-encompassing ways, usually to
the disadvantage of native Washingto-
Read more at TheSkanner.com
nians.
Washington, D.C.
OPINION: Will HUD Secretary Ben
Carson Enforce the Fair Housing Act?
T
he Fair Housing Act
was passed a week
after Dr. Martin Lu-
ther King, Jr. was
assassinated. President
Lyndon Johnson encour-
aged Congress to pass the
legislation as a tribute
to the slain civil rights
leader, who, along with
several civil rights orga-
nizations (including the
NAACP), strongly sup-
ported the act.
The Fair Housing Act
is also known as Title
VIII of the Civil Rights
Act of 1968 (which was
later amended in 1988)
prevents discrimination
in the sale, rental, financ-
ing, and advertising of
housing because of race,
color, religion, disability,
family status, and nation-
al origin. But with the
severe wealth inequality
in our nation, there are
still major gaps between
homeownership
by
race; African American
households were more
heavily impacted by the
Great Recession than any
other racial group.
As much as a third
of African American
wealth was wiped out by
the Great Recession, and
this is partly due to dis-
crimination in banking,
including the ways that
some banks aggressively
pushed subprime loans
on African Americans,
Julianne
Malveaux
NNPA
Columnist
even those who qualified
for traditional loans.
The Department of
Housing and Urban De-
velopment (HUD) is the
federal agency that is re-
“
and the issue of non-dis-
criminatory and afford-
able housing remains a
pressing one.
But will HUD Secretary
Ben Carson enforce the
Fair Housing Act and ef-
fectively administer an
agency that can make a
difference in the quali-
ty of life for low-income
people? One has to raise
the question, especially
as Dr. Carson seems to
want to spend more time
With the severe wealth in-
equality in our nation, there
are still major gaps between
homeownership by race
sponsible for enforcing
the Fair Housing Act, as
well as providing rental
assistance, public hous-
ing, and housing vouch-
ers for those who cannot
afford housing on their
incomes. Our 45th pres-
ident had proposed deep
cuts in the HUD budget,
but the budget that was
passed on March 23,
2018, just hours before
the government was
scheduled to shut down,
actually adds money to
the HUD budget, espe-
cially in the rental assis-
tance and public housing
capital funds program.
Still, cuts are scheduled
for the next fiscal year,
looking for a $30,000
dining table than ad-
ministering his agency.
Trump’s pick of Carson
to administer the agency
was a strange one, given
that Carson’s only qual-
ification for running
one of the government’s
largest agencies seems to
be that his mom avoided
public housing because
of its “dangers.” Trump
does not seem to be high
on finding qualified peo-
ple to run HUD. For ex-
ample, Lynne Patton, the
HUD administrator for
Region II, which includes
New York and New Jer-
See CARSON on page 9
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
FAIR HOUSING ACT
PROTECTING BUYERS AND RENTERS
FROM DISCRIMINATION
DWELLREALTYPDX.COM
503.208.3797