Fair Housing Month Round-Up #4
- Our friends at the National Fair Housing Alliance have released their annual Trends Report (their website is down so we’ve posted it here, .pdf site is back up). In their executive summary they write:
This report documents a problem too costly for our country to ignore. We can no longer tolerate housing discrimination and the persistence of segregated neighborhoods. The federal Fair Housing Act can help take us closer to our goal of balanced and integrated living patterns but only if it is utilized as the excellent tool that it is. As we commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the passage of this critical civil rights legislation, we must renew our commitment as individuals and a nation to creating the vibrant, diverse communities envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Attorney General Michael Mukasey issued a statement on the 40th Anniversary of the FHA. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) sponsored a resolution - that passed - commemorating the FHA and its ammendments on April 4th, 2008.
- Thanks to the relentless work of MoveSmart.org friend Doug Schenkelberg and the From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign at the Heartland Alliance, the Illinois House of Representatives voted unanimously to create a Commission on the Elimination of Poverty. Congrats!! According to Doug, there are three next steps:
1) Reach out to your house legislator and thank them for supporting HB4369, the commission legislation.
2) Reach out to your senator and ask them to support HB4369.
3) Let both your senator and your representative know that money ($450,000) needs to be put in the next state budget to fund the work of the commission.
- The Chicago Housing Authority’s (CHA) new head Lewis Jordan held a public forum with CHA residents and Housing Choice Voucher holders on the renegotiated Moving to Work agreement. According to the Chicago Methods Reporter, the forum drew mixed responses. The new agreement will allow the CHA to require that all tenants they support work 15 hours a week by 2010 (with the minimum hours increasing annually thereafter) and can “explore” implementing time limits on residents of public housing.
