Human Rights Day in Annapolis
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Saturday, January 14, 2023
Saturday, January 7, 2023
Book Review
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
by Heather McGhee
One World, 2021
448 pages. Hardcover, $28.00
This book is by the former president of the progressive think tank Demos, and current chair of the board of Color of Change, a nationwide online racial justice organization. Read a February 17, 202 NPR interview with the author. McGhee examines both the macro and micro sides of inequality and who is damaged by racism and possible ways to lessen the problems. In addition to the most current statistics and information about racism and its damages, the book has a series of interviews all over the U.S. with those people affected by and those denying racism and its consequences.
Her book has been popular and widely praised because it challenges the actions and opinions of both advocates for dismantling racism as well as those denying problems exist. It was a New York Times bestseller, was longlisted for the National Book Award; won the Porchlight Business Book award; cited as one of the best books of the years by Time, the Washington Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ms. magazine, BookRiot, Library Journal, etc. Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist, said “This is the book I’ve been waiting for.”
“[McGhee] takes readers on an intimate odyssey across our country’s racial divide to explore why some believe that progress for some comes at the expense of others. Along the way, McGhee speaks with white people who confide in her about losing jobs, homes, and hope, and considers white supremacy’s collateral victims. Ultimately, McGhee—a Black woman viewing multiracial America with startling empathy—finds proof of what she terms the Solidarity Dividend: the momentous benefits that derive when people come together across race. A powerful, singular, and prescriptive blend of the macro and the intimate.” O: The Oprah Magazine.
Friday, January 6, 2023
Obituary
William Gorham, founder of Urban Institute think tank, 91
An economist and apprentice of Robert S. McNamara, the defense secretary under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, Gorham held high-level positions at the Department of Defense and the old Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) - now the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 1962, Gorham was employed by McNamara’s Department, improving troop effectiveness, compensation, and the military draft. From 1965 to 1968, he was a high assistant to HEW Secretary John Gardner.
In the late 1960s, Johnson and his top domestic adviser, Joseph A. Califano Jr., began the Urban Institute - as an independent, nonpartisan organization with Gorham its president - to evaluate the ongoing success of the administration’s newly-hatched Great Society programs. The Institute received its early funding from foundations and from HUD. It was not the first public policy think tank in Washington - the Brookings Institution began in 1916 - but the analysis of social programs, poverty, and urban problems was still an emerging field in 1968. The Institute has helped shape debate on countless issues, from poverty and housing to health care, racial inequity, taxation, the environment, employment, aging, and infrastructure. Gorham as president retired in 2000.
Early in Barack Obama's Presidency, the Institute’s analysis of a Massachusetts health-care law championed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney (now a Utah Republican senator), helped provide the basis for projections of how Obama’s Affordable Care Act would take shape. More recently, the Urban Institute has studied social ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic, racial disparities in corporate America, the changing workforce, and many other topics.
Research Reports
New Study Discovers Actions to Improve Life for Residents with Disabilities in Federally-Assisted Housing
It is certain that disabled individuals and families, including those in federally assisted housing, face multiple challenges in gaining access to housing units and services that meet their needs—despite legal frameworks meant to help them (Levy et al. 2015; Dawkins and Miller 2015). Disability is very common, with an estimated 25% adults living with a disability, or around 61 million adults (Zhao et al. 2019). Some populations experience higher rates of disability, including women, older adults, adults who identify as American Indian/Alaska Native, adults with lower incomes, adults living in the South, and adults living in rural areas (Okoro et al. 2018; Zhao et al. 2019).
Recent research has highlighted the significant number of disabled residents living in some federally assisted housing programs (Dawkins and Miller 2015; Docter and Galvez 2019). Some 23% of residents in housing funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), including 24% of public housing residents and 19% those in project-based Section 8 rental units. For LIHTC properties, 12.4% of households reported at least one member as disabled in 2019 (HUD 2021).
A recent report by the Urban Institute, Improving Experiences for Residents with Disabilities in Federally Assisted Family Housing (October, 2022), examines challenges to reasonable accommodation processes and to service access. The research focused on three federal housing programs providing affordable rental housing to eligible households with low incomes: public housing, project-based rental assistance through the Section 8 program, and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC). The first two have a large percentage of housing built before 1980; the latter program, while it has only funded units since the 1990s, is often used to refinance and renovate older housing.
The report found that boosting funding, clarifying definitions and processes, and ensuring adequate training for housing providers can increase equity in outcomes for federally assisted residents with disabilities. Specific recommendations were:
(1) Provide more federal funding for reasonable accommodations in federally assisted housing to allow housing providers to meet legal requirements. Significant one-time outlays and/or an ongoing dedicated annual funding stream for housing providers to pay for accommodations would show the federal commitment to funding and enforcement of the law.
(2) Establish a better standard for “reasonableness” to promote access to accommodations across diverse federally assisted housing programs and providers. The law would be most effective if all residents were treated equally and could access the same accommodations from all housing providers receiving federal financial assistance. A clearer standard on financial and administrative burden would help.
(3) Increase uniformity in reasonable accommodation request processes to ensure equitable treatment and outcomes for residents with disabilities. There is no federally prescribed process for reasonable accommodations requests. The lack of uniformity puts the burden of knowing the many rights and processes on residents with disabilities. For housing providers, the desire to avoid discrimination and legal challenge is high, but clear procedural guidance on how to protect against such challenge is low. In addition to the lack of clarity on what is “reasonable," the process has uncertainties.
(4) Train and involve more than one person per housing provider and property in reasonable accommodation request decisions to create a more transparent and fair process.
(5) Improve training, technical assistance, and learning opportunities for housing providers to strengthen reasonable accommodation request processes. Providers noted a lack of resources available for troubleshooting challenges and workshopping solutions. They noted a need for clearer examples of standards and processes, as well as access to targeted technical assistance on reasonable accommodations and fair housing practices.
(6) Improve relations between housing managers and tenants with disabilities.
(7) Congress and HUD should provide housing providers with sufficient funding to help support service-related needs. They should also explore funding collaborations with other federal agencies that serve residents living in public housing and that receive mutual benefit from residents receiving on-site services.
Reimbursement to Renters
Maryland OAG and Westminster Management Settlement Agreement
The Maryland Attorney General (Maryland OAG) and Westminster Management have reached a settlement agreement that requires Westminster to return excessive application fees; improper agent fees, writ fees, and court costs charged in summary ejectment actions; small credit balances that were improperly retained by the company; and security deposit interest that was not paid to vacating tenants.
The settlement addresses charges that Westminster and the property owners violated the Consumer Protection Act by charging tenants illegal fees and by failing to maintain the properties. The properties in question contained more than 9,000 rental units across Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and Prince George’s County. The properties covered by this settlement are:
- Carriage Hill Apartments
- Carroll Park Apartments
- Charlesmont Apartment Homes
- The Commons at White Marsh Apartments
- Cove Village Apartments
- Dutch Village Apartments
- Essex Park Apartments and Townhomes
- Fontana Village Apartments
- Gwynn Oaks Landing Apartments
- Hamilton Manor Apartments
- Harbor Point Estates
- Highland Village Townhomes
- Morningside Park Townhomes
- Pleasantview Apartments
- Princeton Estates Apartment Homes
- Riverview Townhomes
- Whispering Woods Apartments
As soon as the settlement claim form and process information are available from the Maryland Attorney General, we will be sending emails to all clients who live or lived in a Westminster Management property, to make sure everyone knows how and where to file a claim.
You can read the full text of the Maryland Attorney General’s press release here.
If you are experiencing a landlord-tenant issue related to improper fees or lease clauses that may not be allowed in Maryland, contact the Fair Housing Action Center please fill out our landlord-tenant intake form for assistance.
Thursday, January 5, 2023
Native American Heritage Month
National Expert Available to Discuss How Mortgage Lending Limits Housing in Native American Communities
November is Native American Heritage Month. NeighborWorks America’s expert is available to comment on issues locking Native American people out of homeownership, such as mortgage lending, credit issues and the short supply of housing industry professionals. With more than 25 years of history in mortgage lending on Tribal Trust and Restricted Lands, NeighborWorks America (NWA) offers a unique perspective and lessons learned that can be applied now to help this population own homes and build wealth.
The available expert is Mel Willie, director of Native Partnerships and Strategy for NWA. He leads NWA's programming to expand its investment in Native communities. Willie is a national leader in Indian Country with more than 23 years of experience in nonprofit management, government, political, public and intergovernmental affairs and has represented tribal interests at the local, tribal, state and national level. He is a member of the Navajo Nation, born and raised on the reservation in northeast Arizona. Having served as past executive director of the National American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC) and as special advisor to one of the nation’s largest public housing authorities, Willie is intimately familiar with providing affordable housing through highly regulated federal programs.
He can discuss how mortgage lending in Indian Country can be complicated given the various land types; programs and practices that can help create more Native homeowners; and how NeighborWorks helps Native American people get into and keep homes.
If interested or for more information, contact NeighborWorks America Media at 202-760-4097 / media@nw.org.
About NeighborWorks America
For over 40 years, Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp., a national, nonpartisan nonprofit known as NeighborWorks America, has strived to make every community a place of opportunity. Our network of excellence includes nearly 250 members in every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. NeighborWorks America offers grant funding, peer exchange, technical assistance, evaluation tools, and access to training as the nation's leading trainer of housing and community development professionals. NeighborWorks network organizations provide residents in their communities with affordable homes, owned and rented; financial counseling and coaching; community building through resident engagement; and collaboration in the areas of health, employment and education.
Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Maryland
New Maryland Attorney General to Emphasize Civil Rights Violation Enforcement
Maryland Attorney General-elect Anthony G. Brown wants more authority than his predecessors to go after civil rights violators and to investigate police departments for patterns of misconduct. Former Congressman Brown said he will ask the General Assembly to pass legislation that enables him to sue companies and individuals who violate federal or state civil rights laws, for example, in housing or employment. The only states that have this are the District, New York, and California.
He has been reimagining the 850-member office under his leadership, looking at what other attorneys general are doing, and considering what actions he will take. Maryland's new Governor, Comptroller, and Brown have said they will attack systemic problems to make the state fairer and more just.
Brown said the system in Maryland that allows a person to file a discrimination complaint with the Maryland Civil Rights Commission or Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is not sufficient to root out violators. “The Civil Rights Commission has been doing great work for 53 years, but what they don’t do is they don’t do class action. They don’t do multi-jurisdictional,” he said. He said while the commission may have the authority to bring “big-impact litigation,” it typically does not. Brown thinks that a company with a pattern of discriminating against employees or a landlord with multiple complexes in other states outside Maryland who engages in bias should be held accountable. “We’re going to the General Assembly this session both for the authority and the resources it’s going to take [for] attorneys and investigators to be able to stand up that type of unit,” he said.
As Brown assumes office, Maryland has become the most diverse state on the East Coast according to census figures. He said it is crucial to correct the generational and pervasive inequities that have disproportionately affected people of color, including in housing, employment, policing and contracting. Brown recently told a town hall of advocates who were urging him to weigh in on housing, policing and other issues that his “North Star will be equity.” During a recent interview, Brown said “The principles, the values of fairness and justice will be the lens through which we will see the world."
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