Reconciling smart growth and fair housing has been a continuing theme of our work over the past two years, and this focus has continued with recent coalition comments on a Federal Transit Administration Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and comments on an EPA draft reporton “Creating Equitable, Healthy, and Sustainable Communities.”
“The Spatial Concentration of Subsidized Housing”: We have posted this valuable resourceon our website with permission from Dr. Rosalind Kotz. Working with 2000 subsidized housing data, Dr. Kotz completed a baseline analysis of location by census tract poverty in 331 MSA’s for all major federally subsidized housing programs (public housing, other site-based housing, LIHTC, and vouchers). Findings indicate that subsidized households are more highly “segregated” than households identified by race, ethnicity or poverty.
Have you registered yet for the National Conference on School Diversity, on May 17, at Georgetown University Law Center? Register today at www.school-diversity.org. Also, if you need a hotel room on May 16th, next week is the last week to reserve rooms at the conference rate!
Other news and resources
Neglect of foreclosed bank properties in segregated neighborhoods: The National Fair Housing Alliance has released an important report entitled The Banks Are Back, Our Neighborhoods Are Not; Discrimination in the Maintenance and Marketing of REO Properties,which provides evidence that some of the same banks responsible for marketing unsustainable loans to communities of color and triggering our current foreclosure crisis are now engaged in systematic disinvestment of their stock of foreclosed, bank-owned properties in these neighborhoods.
John Payton: The civil rights community was stunned and saddened two weeks ago by the death of John Payton, the dynamic leader of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. A colleague recently reminded us of a beautiful, rousing speech that John delivered last October at the annual meeting of the Housing Justice Network, on the continuing importance of the struggle against housing discrimination and segregation. Worth reading, and remembering John’s passion for justice.
