Fair Housing is Not All Black and White

by RMLS Communication Department | Dec 6, 2012

Following is an article by Nadeen Green, an attorney who has spoken on fair housing topics to residential rental audiences across the country since the Fair Housing Amendments Act’s inception in 1989. 

Here at the Fair Housing Council (FHCO) we make ourselves available to those who feel their fair housing rights have been violated, as well as to those with fair housing questions, including housing providers! If you have a question about your rights or responsibilities under federal, state, and local fair housing laws, please visit us at FHCO online or call our free Hotline at 800/424-3247 Ext. 2.

How can iguanas, “hellos,” and food stamps put you at risk?

You have likely been to fair housing programs or have read articles that dealt with the important topics of race, color, disability, children, national origin, sex, and religion.  (And if that is not the case and you have any role or job in the housing industry, then stop reading this article now—not an easy statement for any author to make—and find a class on fair housing basics pronto.)

But these topics, albeit extremely important, are not the only ones out there. Through state laws and local ordinances, as well as through court cases, the civil rights of the Fair Housing Act continue to expand or are clarified. So here are some things that you may not know about. Even if there is just one topic below that is helpful to you, your reading of this article has been worth it.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my! You know a service animal is not a pet and that you must make reasonable accommodations for people who have a service animal (this usually relates to your pet policies). And while it is highly unlikely that lions, tigers, or bears will be the service animals brought to your community, keep in mind that not all service animals are dogs and cats. And those that are dogs may be providing assistance you never even thought of. From cases or in the news, service animals that take us beyond the guide dog for the blind, or the cat for depression, include

          o Dogs assisting their humans who are diabetic (sensing changes in blood sugar levels);

          o Dogs providing a calming effect for children with FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome);

          o Miniature horses (as guide animals for the blind); this author has had two students in class that had guide horses at their communities;

          o An iguana assisting with depression.

Everyone poops! (Which, by the way, is the title of a children’s book by Taro Gomi that celebrates a very natural process.) Lions, tigers, bears, dogs, cats, horses, and iguanas all poop. But when you reasonably accommodate a person with disabilities and their service animal poops, do you have to clean it up for them? Can you require that the person does this (or arranges to have it done)? The answer to this query is found in the Federal Register, Vol. 73, No. 208, Monday, October 27, 2008 at page 63836. You, however, don’t have to look it up because this author will now quote from that as follows: “…a housing provider may establish reasonable rules in lease provisions requiring a person with a disability to pick up and dispose of his or her assistance animal’s waste.”  Now, before we leave this intriguing topic, may I suggest to you Service Dog Central as a website resource to help you keep current on service dog issues.

Pet lovers protected too? Well, not yet. But there has been discussion in San Francisco (let’s refrain from making any comment whatsoever about California) to consider a prohibition of housing discrimination against responsible pet owners. That bears watching.

Merhaba.  If your community participates in the Project Based Section 8 program or if you receive HOME or CDBG funds, you are supposed to be compliant with HUD’s Limited English Proficiency (LEP) guidelines. If you are not familiar with these, then wisdom would dictate you find out more about this and proceed accordingly. <You can read up on the subject at www.FHCO.org/lep.htm.> Those of you at conventional communities have no FHA duty to those with LEP. But just because you don’t have to do anything in this regard, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. Why? Prospects, applicants and residents for whom you facilitate based on language challenges are happy. Why do you care? Happy people don’t sue you (or at least not as often as unhappy people, although for purposes of disclosure, let me point out that this has not been statistically established; i.e., I made it up). But to avoid some of the issues related to national origin (the usual basis for LEP) and to show your openness to folks from other places (great for mitigation in a worst case scenario, i.e., a fair housing lawsuit or charge), think about what you can do to make it easier for people with LEP. Ideas might include a work order board (residents point to a picture where they have a problem – a toilet, a sink, a door) or work order requests with visuals (think Clip Art) to check. By the way, merhaba means “hello” in Turkish.

Boy Meets Girl. (Or Boy Meets Boy, or Girl Meets Boy, or Girl Meets Girl) No matter the combination, such a scenario can lead to charges of sexual harassment. Why is this a fair housing topic? Because the victims of sexual harassment are chosen based on their gender, and gender is protected under the FHA. Many of the issues arise with maintenance personnel (who may be perpetrators or, as is often the case, victims of sexual harassment). Keeping in mind the vulnerability of your residents and your employees, there are questions you need to ask and decisions you need to make. Should your employees be allowed to date residents? Should your employees be allowed to socialize with residents? And while the topic here is sexual harassment, dating and socializing can lead to other fair housing issues if they lead to disparate treatment in the rental environment (such as the upset African American resident who feels that the maintenance man responds more promptly to her neighbor whom he is dating and who is white). Know the risks of such dating and socializing, know your tolerance for risk, and create your policies accordingly.

MyFace and SpaceBook. You may chuckle when you hear less-than-savvy folks talk about social media, but you may not know as much as you think you do when it comes to social media marketing and fair housing. Social media marketing is a form of advertising and there are fair housing considerations. There are numerous and detailed articles out there about this, but here are a few things for you to consider:

          o Use the EHO logo: this is advertising!

          o Watch what you say: the same words that were taboo in print and online are still taboo in social media.

          o Watch who says it: diversity of spokespersons should be your goal.

          o Watch who you show: white-only advertising has been a sin since 1968; the days of Barbie® and Ken are long over.

          o Weigh your control of your social media site: more control can mean more fair housing liability.

Food Stamps. Should food stamps be counted toward income for rent qualification? The answer is “maybe.” If your community is located in an area that has a source of income protection <this is the case across Oregon>, there is the possibility that food stamps would be considered income. Would this be necessary as a reasonable accommodation if the recipient is getting food stamps based on disability? And finally, the philosophical question of “why not” count them? 

Fair housing laws will continue to expand and will often be interpreted very broadly to protect the civil rights of those who live with you or wish to do so. You owe it to them and to yourself to always be aware of and in compliance with those laws that assure equal housing opportunity.

This article brought to you by the Fair Housing Council; a nonprofit serving the state of Oregon and SW Washington.  Learn more and / or sign up for our free, periodic newsletter at FHCO.org. “Fair Housing Focus” is written by Nadeen Green, Senior Counsel with For Rent Media Solutions™.  The information contained in this article is not to be considered legal advice, and the author and For Rent Media Solutions strongly suggest that you consult with your own counsel as to any fair housing questions or problems you may have.

Qs about your rights and responsibilities under fair housing laws?

Visit www.FHCO.org or call 1-800-424-3247 Ext. 2.

Qs about this article?  Want to schedule an in-office fair housing training program or speaker for corporate or association functions?

Contact Diane Hess, Education Director at dhess@FHCO.org or 800/424-3247 Ext. 108

Gentrification and Fair Housing: A Local Story

by RMLS Communication Department | Oct 4, 2012

Gentrification and Fair Housing:  A Local Story

By Jo Becker, Education/Outreach Specialist, Fair Housing Council
Serving Oregon and SW Washington

In 2008, FHCO launched a tour of Portland’s hidden history of discrimination.  The 2.5-hour coach bus trip explores a multitude of the Northwest’s “equity skeletons” hiding in our communal closet, some of which pre-date the Fair Housing Act (FHA)¹.  Others are recent enough you may remember hearing of in the news.

On the tour we address inequities and injustices aimed at each protected class but this article will focus mainly on the protected classes of race, color, and national origin.  Within that context a lot of different incidents and policies targeted toward a broad spectrum of ethnicities is reviewed.  Among them is the public policy of urban renewal – oft referred to as “urban removal” – that has been perpetrated against a variety of groups over many decades, most notably African Americans.  The devastating consequences – whether intentional or accidental – of urban renewal are not only a national trend but also a local story.  It is a story that continues to affect us in terms of public policies and current neighborhood demographics to this day.

I recently reread an August 09, 2011 article in The Skanner by Lisa Loving².  The article does an excellent job of detailing the gentrification³ Portlanders experienced in the 1950s and 1960s.

The article first sets the stage by illustrating how vibrant and productive the Albina community was in the mid-50s.  Due to accepted steering and redlining practices, Albina had become an openly segregated Black community.  In fact, in 1950 more than half of Oregon’s African American population (about 11,000) lived in two census tracts in Albina. They were concentrated into a single square mile east of the river in an area that had a density six times greater than the city as a whole.  The remaining African Americans, about 2,000, were scattered in other areas around the state.

The Skanner article goes on to describe how, in three consecutive waves spanning 15-20 years, city officials developed and passed plans to bulldoze a community located in what was becoming vital land within the city center as Portland grew.  The first incident demolished over 450 homes and businesses to make way for the Memorial Coliseum in 1956.  The same year Portland secured federal funding to, as Lisa Loving says, “pave Interstates 5 and 99 right through hundreds of homes and storefronts, destroying more than 1,100 housing units in South Albina.”  Then, in ’66 Portland applied for federal funds to expand Emanuel Hospital.  This proposed project would flatten still more homes and businesses in the same area.

At this point Albina residents picketed, but to no avail.  Demolition began in the late ‘60s in order to make way for the Emanuel expansion; and was soon finished.  In a cruel twist of fate, the federal dollars counted on dried up within a few years and construction on the hospital expansion never came to pass.  If you drive the streets of Albina today, the expansive open lots that still surround the Hospital are a result of this failed development effort.  Precisely on those plots were some of the homes and businesses that were ruthlessly expelled 50 years ago.

You might wonder if this was a blighted community wrought with problems, making it a target for government-sanctioned improvements.  Here’s what Lisa Loving has to say about it in the section of her article subtitled “Cause and Effect:”

Contrary to popular belief, ghetto neighborhoods are not a chance occurrence, nor are they the natural evolution of “old housing stock” that hasn’t been properly maintained by its owners.

In her ground-breaking study, “Bleeding Albina: A History of Community Disinvestment, 1940-2000,” Portland State Urban Studies Adjunct Professor Karen J. Gibson detailed how municipal development policies, coupled with racism in the real estate and banking industries, left Portland’s Black community segregated, ghettoized and, finally, scattered.

In cities across the nation, urban power brokers, with the help of the federal government, eagerly engaged in central-city revitalization after World War II.  …“The whole transition has been racial,” Gibson told The Skanner News this week. “People paid taxes in Albina – what did they get for their taxes?  …The whole thing has to do with race, and it has to do with real estate.  White privilege means something – it means a difference in wealth and the fact that you could just come in and take over the boulevard,” Gibson said.

Neither the residents nor the business owners were given time to prepare nor were they reasonably compensated.  The housing stock was not replaced, nor much improved, and former residents were not provided assistance in relocating…  Again, quoting The Skanner article:

<When the plans for> …tearing down Albina homes and businesses for Emanuel’s expansion in 1971 <was rolled out>, many local residents did not realize the plans had been laid years before, according to “History of Portland’s African American Community.”

The Emanuel Displaced Person’s Association was founded by Mrs. Leo Warren in 1970 after locals “were abruptly confronted with the expansion plans.” The city required residents to move out within 90 days, offering homeowners a maximum $15,000 payment and renters a maximum $4,000.

A much-hyped agreement signed by the hospital, the <Portland Development Commission> and the Housing Authority of Portland mandated they would use “maximum energy and enthusiasm” in replacing the lost housing… none of which happened.”

Mrs. Warren’s response:  “Didn’t they have a long-range plan? After all, if your life’s investment was smashed to splinters by a bulldozer to make room for a hospital, you could at least feel decent and perhaps tolerable about it; but to have it all done for nothing?”

The sad thing (among a number of one sad things) about this story is that it is only one example.  The same thing was happening in communities all across the country – always disproportionately impacting “relatively powerless residents in central cities, whether in immigrant White ethnic, Black, or skid row neighborhoods,” as PSU professor, Karen Gibson put it.

Another sad reality is that these government initiatives, along side legalized discrimination, and following in the wake of Oregon’s prominent Ku Klux Klan movement (reportedly the largest Klan west of the Rockies in the 1920s) has resulted in a lack of ethnic diversity and a history of segregated neighborhoods that continues to this day.  In terms of segregated neighborhoods, think of Alberta prior to market-based gentrification; think of SE Portland and Gresham today, to name just three examples.  As for our relative lack of diversity, many are surprised to learn that despite the Northwest’s reputation for being progressive, liberal, and welcoming, it’s no accident that Oregon’s history has produced among the smallest African American populations in the entire country.  According to data from the US Census Bureau, we rank 37th with a 2% Black population when the nation as a whole averages 12%.  Washington state ranks only slightly better with 3.7%.  One might think that with our proximity to the Pacific Ocean we would have high percentages of Asians and other immigrants.  Again looking at data from the Census Bureau, the United States is made up of, on average, 22% non-Caucasians.  Oregon is 12% non-Caucasian; Washington is 18%.  In fact, Oregon ranks lower than the national average for each ethic group counted in the Census with the exception of indigenous populations native to America, Alaska, Hawaii and other Pacific islands.  All of this helps explain why we, at the Fair Housing Council, continue to see ethnicity-based housing discrimination as the second largest area of complaints we deal with.

This article brought to you by the Fair Housing Council; a nonprofit serving the state of Oregon and SW Washington.  Learn more and / or sign up for our free, periodic newsletter at www.FHCO.org.

Qs about your rights and responsibilities under fair housing laws?

Visit www.FHCO.org or call 1-800-424-3247 Ext. 2.

Qs about this article?  Want to schedule an in-office fair housing training program or speaker for corporate or association functions?

Contact Sandy Stienecker, Education / Outreach Specialist at sstienecker@FHCO.org or 503/23-8197 Ext. 109

[1] Federally protected classes under the Fair Housing Act include:  race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (children), and disability.  Oregon law also protects marital status, source of income, sexual orientation, and domestic violence survivors.  Washington law covers martial status, sexual orientation, and domestic violence survivors, and honorably discharged veterans / military status. Additional protected classes have been added in particular geographic areas; visit FHCO.org/mission.htm and read the section entitled “View Local Protected Classes” for more information.

² “Portland Gentrification:  The North Williams Avenue That Was – 1956;” http://theskanner.com/article/Portland-Gentrification-The-North-Williams-Avenue-That-Was–1956-2011-08-09

³http://dictionary.reference.com defines gentrification as the buying and renovation of houses and stores in deteriorated urban neighborhoods by upper- or middle-income families or individuals, thus improving property values but often displacing low-income families and small businesses.  Lisa Loving quotes Portland State University (PSU) professor, Karen Gibson (author of “Bleeding Albina:  A History of Community Disinvestment, 1940-2000) in The Skanner article, “Luxury apartments, convention centers, sports arenas, hospitals, universities, and freeways were the land uses that reclaimed space occupied by relatively powerless residents in central cities, whether in immigrant White ethnic, Black, or skid row neighborhoods.”