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NYC Aims to Restaff Wiped-Out Housing Discrimination Unit as Voucher Values Rise

5 Comments

  • Dany
    Posted May 24, 2022 at 12:55 pm

    Human resource administration not human rights administration

  • nyc101
    Posted May 24, 2022 at 6:21 pm

    No sane landlord who cares about their property will rent to a Section-8/voucher renter. They are the worst of the worst. Disruptive, 3am visitors, frequent police visits.

    • HeWhoCares
      Posted May 25, 2022 at 6:28 pm

      A few not all

  • Morgan Short
    Posted May 25, 2022 at 5:44 pm

    Oddly, I was the landmark case to win against landlords who discriminate based on source of income, (Short v. Manhattan Apts. et al.) and as I read this article I am not satisfied with the “increase in staff”. The problem is the anti-Black racism that permeates every institution with in the system that meets the goal of the society. Source of income was simply the cover used to mask the anti-Black belief that our society has agreed that it will cling to religiously. You can have more staff, but what will be used to discriminate against people who were made Black by those who believe themselves to be White, will simply use the credit score, length of employment, or any other rationalization to deny Black people housing, even if there is a guarantee of covering rent by the government, let me give you an example in my case.
    I sought out help, because as an individual filing a complaint, my voice and complaint did not matter. When I brought it to the lawyers that took my case pro bono, through Housing Works, what was uncovered was astounding and pervasive to the point where I said, this is racism. But I could not use that to win the case because no where did they say no because I am Black people, and as such, while the probability exist that was the exact reason, it was only a slim possibility that I would win using race, I was to not mention race at all. What was uncovered was real estate sales agents, pretending to be typing on the computer to search for apartments-when what they were actually doing was just typing nothing. That’s just the absolute ground level, what the investigation also uncovered, was that realtors were given instructions not to rent to any Black person, ie. a White actor was told while looking at the apartment he looked outside and there was a gathering of three Black men conversing with each other the sales agent said, “don’t worry 20 I’ve been here and not a single Black person has been accepted”. Its hard to get an apartment when at the ground level you are already sunk.
    If you have a voucher and are looking for an apartment there are list of things you must do to increase the chances that you can win your case, without telling you everything I will give you three, first try to get appointment to view apartments first saying that you have income and that you can provide a statement to verify income, I say email because you want documentation of everything as much as possible, second on day of viewing apartment use an audio recorder and start recording before you enter the real estate office making sure you say out loud the date and time before you enter the office, and third not matter what, if they deny you access in the form of “no program apartments” etc., thank them, get there card, and get them to repeat their name out loud. These few things can increase you winning your case. There is more, but Housing Works can definitely help you fight, and I will also. It is important that we confront this as I am seeing from working with homeless people in shelters, and providing mental health counseling, that inadequate and housing instability contributes greatly to a list of damages that one can claim. Don’t sleep on this, I know it is exhausting to fight everything all the time, but we have been left no other choice, this anti-Black discrimination, masked through the thin veil of source of income discrimination, must be wiped away and recompensated for the damage it is doing to us. Housing Works, the Fair Housing Justice Center, helped me win. It was a 5 year long battle, it hurts me to hear this is still a problem, because I understand the mental toll this takes on a human being, but fight this we must cause someone who is looking for an apartment with a voucher is following you, it’s not you or me, its about us.

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