Case Statement
Introduction
More than forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King focused the Chicago Freedom Movement on fair and open housing and on ending racial segregation. This was the first large scale fair housing campaign in the country and the most ambitious civil rights campaign in the North. It placed the issue of equal opportunity in housing and the fight against housing discrimination not just before the people of Chicago, but before the Nation.
The reality of racial segregation and discrimination in housing denies and compromises the rights guaranteed to all Americans and continues to threaten our schools, neighborhoods, communities and cities alike. Incredibly, segregation in Chicago has worsened or at best, has remained about the same, as it was when Dr. King initiated the Chicago fair housing campaign. Noted sociologists Nancy A. Denton and Douglas Massey identify Chicago as a city that is "hyper-segregated." They point out that Chicago is only 5% more integrated today than it was in 1970, that Chicago and the Metropolitan Area continue as one of the most segregated regions in America.
The Problem
Discrimination and segregation in housing and housing related services have had and still have devastating consequences for individuals, communities and our entire Nation. Where we live determines what kind of education our children will have. In fact, the segregation of communities and the segregation of schools are inseparable. Historically, the vast majority of segregated minority schools have been plagued by a lack of resources that are essential to a learning environment. Segregated minority schools generally have fewer qualified and experienced teachers, higher teacher turnover rates, larger class size, fewer advanced classes, inferior infrastructure, and fewer basic educational supplies. Also, where we live determines what kinds of professional and social associations we will have in our community. It determines what kinds of physical danger we will be exposed to, what kinds of values and expectations will be open to us, as well as what kinds of job opportunities will be nearby.
In very practical terms, what does it mean for example, for an African-American young man to grow up in a racially segregated minority neighborhood in Chicago? It means that the State will spend far less on his education than it spends on predominantly white schools. It means as an African-American, he has a 50% chance of finishing high school and the odds of going to prison are greater for him than going to college. His net worth will be 600% less than white Americans and access to jobs, health care, and open space will be limited. It means that he will repeatedly experience discrimination in his search for housing.
HUD's Housing Discrimination Study, published in 2002, showed that African-Americans and Latinos seeking to buy homes in the Chicago area, experience some form of discrimination in nearly one in five interactions with sales agents. When it came to the rental market, African-Americans experienced discrimination in one in five encounters, while Latinos were treated less favorably than whites in one in four transactions. Practically speaking, this means that African-Americans and Latinos experience housing discrimination every time they shop to buy or to rent a home.
Today, housing discrimination is not always obvious to those who experience it. Blatant acts of discrimination are the exception rather than the rule. Instead of a slammed door, unsuspecting home seekers may be shown through a revolving door and may be politely turned away from the housing of their choice, even though they are qualified for that housing. The result, however, is the same. The pain and disappointment are the same.
Although housing discrimination is now more subtle, the results for families and individuals are still devastating. The most frequent problems HOPE and our clients face in our service area include the following issues: racial and ethnic steering; lying about housing availability; landlords using voice mail and voice recognition as a way to discriminate; flagrant practices of racial and ethnic harassment; disparate and overzealous enforcement or neglect of local housing codes, including invasive searches and early morning raids by municipal governments of homes of minority families; intimidating use of police presence; home builders who refuse to make newly constructed housing accessible; and housing providers who refuse to make reasonable accommodations to persons with disabilities and discrimination against families with Housing Choice Vouchers.
Finally, the prominence of subprime lending in communities comprising 30% or more people of color increased by 20% between 1993 and 1998, compared to just 1% for the Nation as a whole. Subprime lending grew 3,000% among African-American homeowners. Latinos were more than 2.5 times as likely as whites to receive subprime loans. Subprime lending has contributed significantly to the staggering increase in foreclosures in the Chicago Metropolitan Area as well as the Nation. Other lending issues include failure of banks and mortgage companies to provide home loans in an amount commensurate with the income and ability to pay of minority borrowers, and low-ball appraisals of minority owned property and/or property in neighborhoods that are predominantly African-American or Latino.
George Lipsitz, the author of The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, said, "Most people who haven't experienced discrimination directly think that they could face such an experience with no problem. Most acts of discrimination are pretty brief they seem to be over in a second. Someone doesn't show you a house you want to look at. And it seems like a small thing. But we know that for people who have routinely experienced discrimination, those experiences stay with them. That moment doesn't end when it appears to be over. It haunts them in the future. It ghosts every step they take with an expectation that the next time might be just around the corner that the next interaction might be yet another case of discrimination. And because of that, one act of discrimination plants the seed for many feelings of inadequacy and anxiety. It's a hurt that keeps on hurting long after its over."
Housing discrimination and segregation diminish everyone. They strike at the heart of the American Dream the right to live in the home of one's choice. Many home seekers are not knowledgeable of their fair housing rights and/or do not know what constitutes housing discrimination. More needs to be done to make home seekers aware of both their rights and responsibilities as homeowners or home renters. More needs to be done to empower individuals and families, strengthen grass-roots efforts and nurture understanding so that injustice and inequality in housing will be a thing of the past.
This is why there is HOPE!
