 Every April, HUD, local
communities, fair housing advocates, and fair housing organizations across the
country celebrate Fair Housing Month and the importance of every person in
America having access to the same housing choices and economic possibilities. The
theme for this year’s Fair Housing Month commemoration is “Shared Opportunity
in Every Community.”
Housing is often thought of
in terms of brick and mortar, but housing is so much more. Where a family lives
determines which schools their children will attend, what amenities they will
be able to enjoy, and the job opportunities that will be available to them. The
Fair Housing Act protects the right of every person in America to live where
they choose.
Through an array of
enforcement activities, fair housing policy initiatives, and education and
outreach efforts, HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity continues
to take action against individuals and housing providers that discriminate.
Last year, HUD and its Fair Housing Assistance Program partner agencies
received 8,293 complaints alleging discrimination based on one or more of the
Fair Housing Act’s seven protected classes: race, color, national origin,
religion, sex, familial status, and disability. HUD also focused on lending
discrimination, as well as various forms of discrimination faced by women,
families with children, and LGBT persons.
As we celebrate Fair Housing
Month 2016, let us recommit ourselves to working together to create communities
of opportunity where everyone has an equal chance to succeed in life.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
released new guidance
on the application of Fair Housing Act standards to the use of criminal records
by providers of housing and real estate-related transactions. As many as 100
million U.S. adults – or nearly one-third of the population – have a criminal
record of some sort. Those records can include
arrests that never led to convictions, as well as convictions for a wide range
of crimes — from petty to serious — that may have happened decades ago.
“Right now, many housing
providers use the fact of a conviction, any conviction, regardless of what it
was for or how long ago it happened, to indefinitely bar folks from housing
opportunities,” Julián Castro, HUD secretary, said in a statement. “Many
people who are coming back to neighborhoods are only looking for a fair chance
to be productive members, but blanket policies like this unfairly deny them
that chance.”
Whether an individual
landlord's policy has a discriminatory impact will need to be determined on a
case-by-case basis but HUD's new guidance warns that landlords could be
breaking the law when they refuse to rent to people with criminal records —
even if they have no intention to discriminate — because such a policy would
likely have a disproportionate impact on African-American and Hispanic
applicants.
NPR
and the New
York Times covered the release.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced
that nearly $174 million will soon be made available through first-ever
allocations of the National Housing Trust Fund. The National Housing
Trust Fund is a new affordable housing production program that will
complement existing Federal, state and local efforts to increase and preserve
the supply of decent, safe, and sanitary affordable housing for extremely low-
and very low-income households, including families experiencing
homelessness.
HUD expects to make individual allocations to States later
this spring and anticipates these funds can be drawn upon as early as this
summer.
 More than 40 people spoke and showed strong support of the 2016 Seattle Housing Levy
proposal at a public hearing at City Hall on Monday. Since 1981, four housing levies have been passed to fund
affordable housing, assist first time homeowners and provide emergency rental
assistance in Seattle. The current levy expires this year and Seattle Mayor Murray
has proposed renewing and increasing the tax levy for the next seven years to
support affordable housing options in Seattle. It is proposed to collect
$290 million in property taxes beginning in 2017 through 2023. The proposal aims to
produce and preserve affordable apartments, prevent homelessness
for 4,500 families and assist 280 homeowners and buyers.
The Select Committee on the
Seattle Housing Levy is made up of all nine members of the Seattle City Council
who will decide whether to send the levy to Seattle voters on the August
general ballot. They will decide in early May whether to pass it on to the
ballot. Monday's meeting was one of nine scheduled for discussion of the
levy. The next Select Committee meeting will be April 15 at 9:30 a.m. at
Seattle City Hall.
|
Helen Howell, executive director of Building Changes,
wrote an op-ed
for the Seattle Times about the missed opportunity by our state Legislature
this session to invest in family homelessness, especially when we have so much
information about strategies that we know are successful. In a single
year, nearly 16,000 families with children seek some level of homeless
services, according to recent statewide data. Excitingly,
we have entered a breakthrough stage in Washington where we can point to
specific, cost-effective strategies with proven results at impacting family
homelessness including rapid re-housing, supportive housing and diversion. We
join Helen in her request that lawmakers learn and act on the innovative
strategies that are proven to exit families from homelessness.
Katy
Miller, regional coordinator for the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness
(USICH) wrote a blog post exploring the
use of shelter to address the crisis of homelessness and asks the question, “Is
shelter being used effectively both to provide immediate safety and to
create quick paths to permanent housing?” Katy includes four things to consider as you assess the
effectiveness of shelter services in your community:
- Emergency shelter has vital
roles to play in Housing First approaches to ending homelessness.
- To strengthen our models of
emergency shelter, we must embrace innovation and change.
-
We must create many
pathways — person-centered pathways — out of
homelessness
-
A
larger community response must be brought to bear to end homelessness among our
neighbors.
USICH recognizes the need for
more work
to support emergency shelter providers to play their most effective roles in
Housing First systems. They want to hear from
you about how your community
is engaging the shelter system as a solution and tool to end homelessness.
Along with 21 other states, work
requirements for people seeking food stamps are now being imposed in
King County and other parts of Washington. According to Department of Social
and Health Services spokesperson Norah West, the change in work requirements
could effect as many as 15,000 people in Washington. Under new requirements,
individuals are now limited to three months of food assistance in any
three-year period, unless they work 80 hours a month, or participate in a
sufficient number of trainings and volunteer programs. These requirements apply
to adults between 18 and 49 who do not have disabilities or dependents.
These requirements have been on hold
since 2009, due to the widespread and persistent unemployment following the
economic crash. The boost in food stamp benefits has been attributed, in-part,
to preventing poverty and homelessness rates from skyrocketing. The
requirements are being re-imposed due to perceptions that employment rates have
sufficiently recovered in parts of the country. Federal waivers have been
sought and granted for areas whose employment numbers remain low, which is why
only certain segments of Washington are affected.
This
year Republicans in the State Senate attempted to forbid any part of Washington
from seeking a waiver, regardless of how few jobs were in them. Many
thousands more people would lose food assistance under SB 5776 whose
sponsors include Senators John Braun, Michael Baumgartner, Ann Rivers, Randi
Becker, Mike Padden, Mark Schoesler, Sharon Brown, Jan Angel, Barbara Bailey,
Don Benton and Jim Honeyford.
NLIHC released a new report
on March 24 titled The Gap: The Affordable Housing Gap
Analysis, 2016 that documents a shortage of 7.2 million affordable
and available rental units for the nation’s 10.4 million extremely low income
(ELI) renter households, those with incomes at or below 30% of their area
median (AMI). Three-quarters of ELI renters are severely cost-burdened,
spending more than half of their income on rent and utilities. The report calls
for greater federal investment in ELI rental housing through the National
Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) and other housing programs.
Nationally, there are only 31
affordable and available rental units for every 100 ELI renter households. The
report details the shortage of affordable and available rental housing at
different income thresholds as well as cost burdens for each of the states, the
District of Columbia, and the 50 largest metropolitan areas. No state or
metropolitan area has an adequate supply of housing for ELI renters and 20
states have fewer than the national average of 31 affordable and available
units per every 100 ELI households.
Facing Homelessness is a local non profit working globally
to change the negative stereotype of those without shelter as means for
engaging community to end homelessness. Facing Homelessness is currently
looking for an Office
Manager. This position supports the organization by organizing operations
and procedures; preparing payroll; controlling correspondence; designing filing
systems; reviewing and approving supply requisitions; and monitoring clerical
functions. Their ideal candidate is a team player, has advanced organizational
skills, meets deadlines, takes pride in their work, is a problem solver, and
can work independently and efficiently. To apply, please
submit a resume and at least 3 references to info@facinghomelessness.org .
Compass Housing Alliance develops and provides essential
services and affordable housing for homeless and low-income people in the
greater Puget Sound region. Compass is currently looking for an Emergency
Services Manager. This position is responsible for leading the core
functions of the emergency services programs which provide a broad range of
shelter and day services to address issues faced by homeless men and women. The
Emergency Services Manager will support the Program Managers in the supervision
of their programs; evaluate internal service capacity; and develop and foster
key relationships across the organization and within the community to expand
the availability of shelter and emergency service and improve services for
homeless individuals in our community. |
