On Wednesday, October 11th a co-worker and I went to Washington Square to present the Assessment of Fair Housing AFH. We had a pretty small turnout, but everyone that attended seemed interested in the presentation and participated in the discussion afterwards. We asked if anyone had experienced any issues with fair housing in the past and if they were able to resolve it. One woman said, “I had an issue here and I have not been able to resolve it”. I asked her if she wanted to talk about it and she replied that she did not. A little later she leaned over to me and asked if she could talk to me after the presentation. I said yes of course and while we were packing up she was folding chairs as people left the meeting. One of the guys in …show more content…
The tenant went back to her unit and called 911. Officer Bass of the Bellingham Police Department was the one that responded. The Tenant has a police report from that night and the officer referred her to Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault DVSAS and he promised to get back to her which he has not.
The tenant said that attending weekly counseling sessions at DVSAS has helped her immensely and she has realized that she may never know the details of that night. She said that she has been ostracized by some of his friends that leave signs on his door that say some people are just liars or some women are desperate for attention. In fact, the man that came back into the meeting after it was over and saw she was still with us, is his good friend. The tenant says that she sees him every single day and that he makes lewd comments to her in the hallway. He told her that he can hear her in the shower, and when she does take a shower as soon as she is done he knocks on her door, presumably to see if she will answer in her robe or in a towel. The tenant said that she spoke with someone at Washington Square named Doug Patten or Patton. I don’t know if he is an employee of the Housing Authority or not. She asked Doug if she could please move to another unit and he said that she could move her to Lincoln Square. She does not want to live at Lincoln Square, she has friends at Washington Square too and she gave me a couple of other reasons not to move to Lincoln Square. The
Many professionals recognize the benefits of assistive animals for people with physical disabilities. This includes seeing-eye dogs that are trained to alert owners to environmental hazards. Some policies may be hard to change, but are required if needed. One well known policy
One of the most prevalent forms of discrimination is through housing. While modern discrimination is typically difficult to figure out the exact intentions of the person accused of discrimination, such as a boss not choosing a minority to fill a management role, discrimination in housing has continued to be more obvious. The reason why housing is so important is because where a person lives dictates the school the resident’s children go to, the infrastructure such as hospitals, parks and libraries, and also availability of employment. Many of the housing inequalities have been caused by the Federal government such as the national appraisal system and subsidizing suburban areas, and not enforcing abolishing restricted covenants.
There is a reason for everything, and if there is no reason to do something, most people will not do it. For example, if there is no incentive to motivate landlords to upkeep their property and make it the best it can be, they will left their properties at the lowest manageable state they can get away. Rent ceiling laws are an example of how lack of motivation and incentives can discourage people from making sure their best work and resources go into their product or whatever they are doing. These laws impose limitations on the amount landlords can charge their tenants for staying in their properties. This causes the landlords to lose the amount of money they should have made on their property, and the landlords will not be motivated to
Within each service area there is a host of many options available. Specifically, under the Public and Indian Housing is the Housing Choice Voucher Program, commonly referred to as Section 8 Housing. Section 8 is the federal government's major program for access to very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford suitable, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market. Housing choice vouchers are administered by the local public housing agencies (PHAs). The
Rent control refers to laws that limit the amounts of rent and the amounts that rent can be increased in any year. There is no statewide rent control in the US, and all the rent control laws and regulation are passed by cities. Most of the cities with rent control are located in New York, California, and New Jersey. Washington, D.C. also has rent control.
“You have to be twice as good as them to get half of what they have.” Was a famous quote said by Kerry Washington on her hit show Scandal. The quote was said in reference to Kerry having to work twice as hard to get half of what her Caucasian co-workers have. This quote relates to a black person everyday struggle. As a black person, they are constantly competing for equality with their Caucasian counterparts. Equality in things such as the work-force, food industry but more importantly in the housing area. Housing discrimination amongst blacks has been one of the biggest issues in the United States. Because of the discrimination, Blacks still have a greater struggle finding housing more than their equally qualified Caucasian counterparts. The
Those who cannot afford the high prices of housing are often forced out into the streets where they face a very uncertain future due to the number of abuses they encounter daily from all walks of life, with the most damning being the vagrancy laws that come into vogue in areas that are getting gentrified, which many cities have passed to “protect” their newfound assets and tax base from the “lowering” of property values. Furthermore, when cities such as Los Angeles demand that property developers set aside affordable housing for lower income people, they get sued in court, such as in 2009, when real estate developer Geoffrey Palmer successfully sued in order to overturned an ordnance which required that. This was also the same man who also proposed building a footbridge connecting two of his buildings to minimize contact with people he deemed undesirable (Davis).
It is often easy to castigate large cities or third world countries as failures in the field of affordable housing, yet the crisis, like an invisible cancer, manifests itself in many forms, plaguing both urban and suburban areas. Reformers have wrestled passionately with the issue for centuries, revealing the severity of the situation in an attempt for change, while politicians have only responded with band aid solutions. Unfortunately, the housing crisis easily fades from our memory, replaced by visions of homeless vets, or starving children. Metropolis magazine explains that “…though billions of dollars are spent each year on housing and development programs worldwide, ? At least 1 billion people
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is the “largest public housing authority in the nation” (Developments, 2015). In existence since 1934 (About NYCHA: NYCHA at 70, 2015), NYCHA is a low to moderate income public housing initiative consisting of 328 developments throughout all five boroughs of New York City. More than 400,000 residents benefit from these developments through the receipt of not only apartments but additional services provided by each development and New York City overall. Over recent years the NYCHA developments have been experiencing a reduction in government funding, forcing the organization to re-evaluate strategies addressing maintenance of old buildings (About NYCHA, 2015).
are afraid to build any new buildings if in a few years those too will be taken
Homelessness is a serious problem in our society. Every night in our nation thousands of people are on the streets. This type of behavior is considered deviant because it does not reflect the norms and values of our society. In many cases the homeless people in our country are treated as total outcasts. Many of these people have severe mental disorders. Some are victims of an economy that has failed them. One may ask how such harsh situations exist in such an advanced society. With all the money and programs created to help people it seems ridiculous that this behavior exists. In a society where people have so much how is it possible that there are still people that have so little. The homeless are humans, no different than anyone else.
Homelessness is a growing problem in today’s society. Because of the economic crises, many people are losing his or her jobs because company’s had to cut back on expenses, as well as companies that have closed down completely. Furthermore because of the economic crises many mental institutions are forced to close the doors because of lack of funds. People who once had a safe healthy place to call home are being forced into homelessness and are lacking the health care needed to ensure a happy healthy life. Something has to be done to assist homeless people in finding housing and healthcare they so desperately need. Although it is not possible to solve the homeless
Throughout the United States, homelessness and poverty have become an overwhelming issue. From people losing their jobs to others having to give up their homes, nearly 14.5 percent of Americans experience some type of poverty. This could look like a small percentage to some but in reality, it's more than 45 million people. While this number may be decreasing, the stereotype of those who are in poverty still remains. It is often thought that those in poverty are non-educated addicts and are generally criminal people. This, however, fails to be proven true. In my personal experiences, it was believed that the homeless and impoverished were of a lower social level and it was easy to assume the poor were in their walk of life for more reasons than simply not having money. Drugs, crime, and poverty all seemed to have the same definition.
Those who rent from private landlords do not only tend to, on average, pay almost double the rent of a person living within social housing but also are twice as likely to live in a residence the Government would class as a “non-decent home”, a residence in disrepair and one that does not meet health and safety standards (Jonathan Owen, 2014). The undisputable growth of private renting sector is not limited to England but is also noticeable in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In wales the private rental sector represents 14% of total housing, the private rental sector in Scotland has doubled over the last ten years as more than three hundred thousand properties have been sold and in Northern Ireland private landlords own more properties than councils and housing associations combined according to national figures provided in 214 (Jonathan Owen, 2014).
Homelessness is a person or a family that don’t have a place to use as a house or shelter. US government provides emergency/winter shelters for homeless people living in the United States. Winter shelters are really useful for homeless people, but there is one problem about this service. States have the control of opening and closing these shelters. Before the beginning of winter, every state chooses a temperature to open winter shelters, and they open shelters when the weather is lower than the chosen temperature. For example New York City decided to open its winter shelters when the weather is colder than 32 F previous winter. Every state has a different temperature to open its shelters. Lethal hypothermia can be caused when the