Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACTS:

Stacie B. Miller, Communications Dir.
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights
202-662-8317, office
202-445-6101, mobile
smiller@lawyerscommittee.org
Maggie Kao, Leadership Conference, 202-466-2735
Nhu-Han Duong, National Fair Housing Alliance, 202-898-1661

August 18 , 2008

National fair housing Commission focused on gulf coast housing crisis in the wake of hurricanes katrina and Rita

Second of Multi-City Hearings in Houston During National Bar
Association’s Annual Convention Investigates Housing Discrimination

HOUSTON, TX, August 1, 2008 – Trailing the 40th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity held its second of five multi-city hearings in Houston, Texas yesterday during the National Bar Association’s 83rd Annual Convention.  Gordan Quan, former Houston Mayor Pro Tem and Chair of the Housing Committee for the City of Houston, and Okianer Christian Dark, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law, led the Houston investigational hearing on the state of fair housing in America, with a focus on the post-Katrina and Rita housing crisis on the Gulf Coast.

Local and regional housing experts and advocates testified during the hearing, themed “Still Separate and Unequal,” held at the Westin Oaks Hotel.  Charles McMillan, President-Elect, National Association of Realtors (NAR), served as a guest commissioner and the hearing was moderated by Barbara R. Arnwine, Executive Director, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL), and John Payton, President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF).

Over half a million Gulf Coast residents, many of whom were reliant on governmental housing programs, faced longstanding effects of the ravenous hurricanes.  At the helm of disastrous outcomes was the Administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina housing programs which violated evacuees’ constitutional rights.  Hurricane survivors, many with little or no resources, were grossly failed by the largest housing debacle in history, according to national fair housing advocates.  Nearly 150,000 survivors alone sought refuge in Houston.

The commission, co-chaired by former Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretaries Jack Kemp and Henry Cisneros began its cross-country investigation into the alarming state of U.S. housing on July 15 in Chicago with a focus on the subprime housing debacle.  The commission is being hosted by LCCRUL, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCR/EF), NAACP LDF and the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA).  Additional hearings will be held in Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta.  The findings and recommendations of the commission will be released in a December report.  The hearings are expected to draw hundreds of housing advocates and residents who will testify to the nature and extent of illegal housing discrimination, its origins, its connection with government policy and practice and its effect on communities across the United States.

Remaining hearings span many subjects, but will highlight regional challenges, for example:

• Los Angeles, September 9: The Foreclosure Crisis
• Boston, September 22: The Effects of Housing Discrimination on
  Education and Children  
• Atlanta, October 17: Federal Accountability and Enforcement of  Fair Housing Laws

In addition to Co-Chairs Cisneros and Kemp and Commissioners Dark and Quan, the National Commission also includes Pat Combs, former President of the NAR; I. King Jordan, President-Emeritus of Gallaudet University and Myron Orfield, Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Law.

“The hearing in Houston focused on the myriad fair housing issues arising after the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and address systemic problems in federal housing programs.  The affordable housing crisis on the Gulf Coast and fair housing problems arising from the accompanying diaspora continue and this hearing will offer important testimony and perspective of what has happened in light of housing problems discussed at other hearings.”
-- Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Executive Director Barbara R. Arnwine

“The images of the hurricanes of 2005 made it clear that racial discrimination and segregation have prevented generations from gaining opportunities.  Because housing is a crucial link in all aspects of our lives, it is incumbent upon our government to carry out strong fair housing enforcement and education in order to prevent a recurrence of segregated living patterns.  Fair housing must be an essential component of our dialogue if we are truly sincere about the need to eradicate segregation and lift the barriers to viable, strong and integrated communities.”
-- National Fair Housing Alliance President Shanna Smith

“Three years after Hurricane Katrina a silent storm persists. There are constant reports of families, trying to put their lives back together, now encountering housing discrimination. Unlike Katrina, which did not discriminate by race or socio-economic standing, we can do something to prevent this.”
-- Leadership Conference on Civil Rights President Wade Henderson

“This hearing -- before the National Bar Association in Houston -- should prove extremely valuable in fulfilling our mission to examine the structural inequality that still exists today in every region of the country.   It is imperative that the Commission hear testimony about the critical housing issues still affecting the Katrina Diaspora, including discrimination, segregation and the wholesale displacement of communities of color.”
-- NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. President and Director-Counsel John Payton

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