US Housing Policies Condemned By International Watch Groups

US Housing Policies Condemned By International Watch Groups
Hundreds of thousands are homeless due to petty offenses and US policy

By Lynda Carson November 27, 2004

During November of 2004, two seperate watch dog groups released stinging reports that condemned US Government housing policies for contributing to homelessness here and abroad.

On November 24, the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) condemned the United States for making tens of thousands homeless in Iraq due to it's policies of bombing cities and it's occupation of the country while waging a war on it's civilian population. COHRE also condemned the US Government for it's lack of housing protection policies across the United States which has left millions homeless as a result.

COHRE’s Executive Director, Scott Leckie said, "The United States – the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world – is one of the worst housing rights violators and continues to treat millions of homeless people within its borders in an unjust and brutal manner. The criminalisation of homelessness in nearly fifty states around the country, military offensives and indiscriminate bombing campaigns in Iraq that have left thousands of Iraqis homeless, and continued opposition to recognition of the right to adequate housing as a human right in the international arena, are testimony to the United States’ arrogant disdain for this fundamental human right," he added.

In a different stinging report released in New York City on November 18, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports that the nations housing policies have been excluding hundreds of thousands of low-income renters and their families from public housing because of HUD's One Strike Policy.

The 101-page report is aptly named "No Second Chance," and the HRW claims that this is the first comprehensive examination of the Federal Government's, One Strike Policy.

“Everyone deserves safe housing, but these policies yield more misery and desperation than public safety,” said Corinne Carey, researcher for Human Rights Watch's U.S. Program.

The released report reveals that people have been excluded from public housing for minor offenses that may have occurred many years ago. In some cases, merely being arrested though not convicted of anything has been enough of a reason to keep people out of public housing, the report states.

As an example of what is occurring, in Pittsburgh, an arrest for shoplifting leads to an automatic exclusion from public housing for the next four years after the offense was allegedly committed, and in Austin, Texas, anyone caught possessing a small amount of pot is excluded from public housing for the next seven years.

The report goes on to state that, some 3.5 million people across the nation are currently ineligible for public housing due to felony convictions, and that they often end up among the estimated 12.5 million Americans who are homeless, living on the streets and are sleeping in shelters at night across the nation.

“The federal government is finally paying attention to the people leaving prison and re-entering the community,” said Carey of the HRW. “But even the best-designed re-entry program will fail if those returning from prisons and jails can't get housing.”

  
The struggle against the One Strike Policy was fought in Oakland CA, by Oakland's Eviction Defense Center (EDC) in a case known as Rucker VS Davis. In a pitched battle all the way through the nations highest courts, on March 26, 2002 the US Supreme Court ruled that the Oakland Housing Authority had legal grounds to evict innocent renters for the alleged drug related activity of others, even though they had not been participants, nor were aware that the alleged drug related activities were taking place.

As an example of some of those targeted by the One Strike Policy and who fought their battle all of the way to the US Supreme Court, in 2002, then 78 year old wheel-chair bound Herman Walker fought his eviction after his care-giver was allegedly caught with a crack pipe in an Oakland Public Housing building.

During 2002, it was 63 year old Barbara Hill, and 71 year old Willie Lee who had to fight against their evictions after their grandchildren had allegedly been found to have small amounts of pot in their possession while in the parking lot of some local public housing properties in Oakland.

Another victim of the One Strike Policy was elderly Pearlie Rucker, who in 2002 faced eviction from an Oakland public housing unit because her daughter allegedly was caught with some crack cocaine around 3 blocks away from her apartment building.

It was under Bill Clinton that the One Strike Policy took effect, while in 1996 he declared; “The rule in public housing should be one strike and you’re out.” Congress later made the One Strike Policy into federal housing law and set forth the provisions and guidelines on how to implement the policy.

It did not take long before challenges to the One Strike Policy started to take place and it was eventually fought all of the way to the US Supreme Court.

The 2002 US Supreme Court decision making the One Strike Policy the law of the land has set the stage for a zero tolerance crack down on all three million public housing renters across the nation. The rest of the nations low-income renters that apply for housing assistance are up against these same draconian exclusionary policies that have terrorized public housing renters and contributed to the nations homelessness disaster during the past few years.

The Human Right's Watch report charges that the Pittsburgh Housing Authority along with Austin's Housing Authority, and the Sarasota Housing Authority of Florida, are among those agencies that are exceeding the exclusionary policies set forth in the One Strike Policy and have been making it even more difficult for people to gain public housing assistance.

The author of the Human Right's Watch report termed their policies as being "blanket denials."

The Allegheny County Housing Authority of Pennsylvania had fared better than the city of Pittsburg did in the report, even though it was listed as one of the agencies with policies that exceeded HUD's guidelines for implimentation of the One Strike Policy.

In this year alone, nearly 10 percent of the more than 1,100 low-income renters who applied for public housing at the Allegheny County Housing Authority were denied due to negative criminal background checks.

According to the report, some Public Housing Authorities (PHA's) across the nation deny public housing for infractions of the law which are less than misdemeanors. In parts of rural South Carolina, most people are kept out of public housing for shop lifting charges or for not paying for their video rentals, according to one housing official.

In New York City, people are denied public housing for a two year period for such violations as disorderly conduct or turnstile jumping, and riding the subway for free without paying their fare. The disparity of how the policy is implemented makes it difficult to grasp just what it is exactly that keeps people out of public housing in New York City.

As another example of the One Strike Policy, in New York City, people that are convicted of a misdemeanor possession of pot and sentenced to six months probation would be ineligible for public housing for a five year period.

According to the report, it states, "Policies that arbitrarily exclude people from public housing do not advance public safety—they undermine it. Denying housing to those with the fewest options threatens the health and safety of people with criminal records and, indeed, the safety of entire communities."

The Human Right's Watch report concludes that the disparity being used by the public housing agencies across the nation in defining how the One Strike Policy is to be implemented, determines who is kept out of public housing and why, and that these same disparities have often kept upwards of tens of thousands of people needlessly out of the nations public housing and have contributed to the homelessness crisis all across the country.

In closing, the report urges the United States to address the critical shortage of affordable housing across the nation, especially public housing, and to eliminate the unfair policies that target and exclude those with criminal offenses from public housing through the One Strike Policy.