tricknologist
01-04-2006, 02:06 AM
Housing discrimination hits the Web (http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-12/113627076252410.xml)
Post-Katrina ads cited in federal complaints
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
By Gwen Filosa
Staff writer
The Web sites seem friendly enough.
With names such as Katrinahousing.org, they offer hurricane victims help finding places to live.
But the listings aren't for everyone. Many of the Good Samaritans who post available accommodations want to provide housing only for certain folks.
"Not racist, but white only," says a Jasper, Ala., posting that offers two rooms in a mobile home.
"As a white couple, we would be looking for a white mother and baby," advises a posting from Casselbery, Fla.
"Will help white males ages 20-45," says a Baton Rouge offer.
"We would prefer a white Christian couple. Pastors are welcome," says someone from Douglasville, Ga.
"Applicants must be gay, white or light-skinned Hispanic males," reads an offer from Sharon, Pa., which identifies the host as part of the gay community. An Ellicott City, Md., listing says in bold print, "Gays and lesbians not welcome."
A Minnesota woman who says she is white and 47 prefers to help "a single black male."
The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center found 68 such postings on five Web sites that offer housing to people displaced by Katrina. All of them violate federal law because, even though most of the offers are for free housing, they are posted on Web sites that generate revenue through advertising, said the nonprofit civil rights organization, which filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Just as newspapers cannot publish housing ads that bar applicants because of their race, color, religion, sex, family status, disability and national origin, the Web also is subject to the 1968 Federal Fair Housing Act, the advocates say.
"I was shocked. We usually don't get that many straightforward cases," said James Perry, executive director of the fair housing center, which appears to have cleaned up the sites within a week of its Dec. 23 complaint to HUD.
One site, katrinahome.com, shut down after four months. Those who put up katrinahousing.org said they didn't know of the discriminatory ads but will screen them out.
"I've already got our tech team on it," said Paul Wilson, a marketing consultant in Provo, Utah, who is behind katrinahousing.org, a nonprofit with more than 180,000 offers of housing on the Internet.
The discriminatory postings make up only a part of what's on the site, said Wilson, who found the complaint a hassle but agreed to comply. Wilson said he can understand someone asking for a "Christian" roommate.
"If you're opening up your home free of charge, it's probably one of the most intimate things you can do," Wilson said. "This is adding to our plate. It's one more thing we have to do. We're all volunteers."
Some of the postings asked specifically for black residents, but the majority of the discriminatory postings say white people only. Several are apologetic in tone. "We live in a redneck county here and blacks are frowned on," says a Dunnellon, Fla., resident. "Heck, we were also frowned on . . . but I don't want any of my neighbors having ruffled feathers."
Others say they're looking out only for the evacuee's best interest. "I just want whoever needs this space to be comfortable and accepted," says one rural Southern Illinois volunteer, who adds in capital letters, "I am not racist."
Many posts say no children or limit their number, something Perry says also violates the fair housing law.
The Web site case is a rarity for Perry's group, which was a five-person office before Katrina and now is down to just Perry and attorney Lucia Blacksher.
Housing discrimination is the group's target, but the office has been swamped with phone calls about evictions and other issues entangled in the city's post-Katrina housing crunch.
"If it's a straightforward eviction, we can't help you," Perry recently said from his New Orleans office. "It has to be discrimination. It's not feasible for us to investigate every single case. We don't have enough resources to help every single person."
Instead, his team tries to take cases that represent broader issues of housing discrimination.
One such case, a lawsuit filed against the city of Denham Springs over a group home for mentally ill people that relocated there after losing its building in New Orleans, is poised for trial in federal court.
Options Foundation Inc., a Baton Rouge nonprofit, manages the group home that bought property in Denham Springs after being forced from New Orleans. Options is suing Denham Springs, which ordered the group home out of town, saying the region is zoned residential and therefore can't accommodate the 22 or so disabled residents.
The four-acre lot off Louisiana 1032 was zoned residential in 2002, but it was home to a halfway house for drug addicts until May 31, 2005, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge. The group home, where residents share household chores and eat dinner together as a family, isn't marked with signs and its neighbors include a nursing home, a thrift shop and trailer parks.
Options Foundation and Perry's group say the city is violating federal fair housing laws by trying to kick out the group home. The City Council denied an October request by Options to allow the home, citing zoning laws.
But Judge Ralph Tyson issued a restraining order, saying Options' case has merit.
Gwen Filosa can be reached at gfilosa@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3304.
Post-Katrina ads cited in federal complaints
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
By Gwen Filosa
Staff writer
The Web sites seem friendly enough.
With names such as Katrinahousing.org, they offer hurricane victims help finding places to live.
But the listings aren't for everyone. Many of the Good Samaritans who post available accommodations want to provide housing only for certain folks.
"Not racist, but white only," says a Jasper, Ala., posting that offers two rooms in a mobile home.
"As a white couple, we would be looking for a white mother and baby," advises a posting from Casselbery, Fla.
"Will help white males ages 20-45," says a Baton Rouge offer.
"We would prefer a white Christian couple. Pastors are welcome," says someone from Douglasville, Ga.
"Applicants must be gay, white or light-skinned Hispanic males," reads an offer from Sharon, Pa., which identifies the host as part of the gay community. An Ellicott City, Md., listing says in bold print, "Gays and lesbians not welcome."
A Minnesota woman who says she is white and 47 prefers to help "a single black male."
The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center found 68 such postings on five Web sites that offer housing to people displaced by Katrina. All of them violate federal law because, even though most of the offers are for free housing, they are posted on Web sites that generate revenue through advertising, said the nonprofit civil rights organization, which filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Just as newspapers cannot publish housing ads that bar applicants because of their race, color, religion, sex, family status, disability and national origin, the Web also is subject to the 1968 Federal Fair Housing Act, the advocates say.
"I was shocked. We usually don't get that many straightforward cases," said James Perry, executive director of the fair housing center, which appears to have cleaned up the sites within a week of its Dec. 23 complaint to HUD.
One site, katrinahome.com, shut down after four months. Those who put up katrinahousing.org said they didn't know of the discriminatory ads but will screen them out.
"I've already got our tech team on it," said Paul Wilson, a marketing consultant in Provo, Utah, who is behind katrinahousing.org, a nonprofit with more than 180,000 offers of housing on the Internet.
The discriminatory postings make up only a part of what's on the site, said Wilson, who found the complaint a hassle but agreed to comply. Wilson said he can understand someone asking for a "Christian" roommate.
"If you're opening up your home free of charge, it's probably one of the most intimate things you can do," Wilson said. "This is adding to our plate. It's one more thing we have to do. We're all volunteers."
Some of the postings asked specifically for black residents, but the majority of the discriminatory postings say white people only. Several are apologetic in tone. "We live in a redneck county here and blacks are frowned on," says a Dunnellon, Fla., resident. "Heck, we were also frowned on . . . but I don't want any of my neighbors having ruffled feathers."
Others say they're looking out only for the evacuee's best interest. "I just want whoever needs this space to be comfortable and accepted," says one rural Southern Illinois volunteer, who adds in capital letters, "I am not racist."
Many posts say no children or limit their number, something Perry says also violates the fair housing law.
The Web site case is a rarity for Perry's group, which was a five-person office before Katrina and now is down to just Perry and attorney Lucia Blacksher.
Housing discrimination is the group's target, but the office has been swamped with phone calls about evictions and other issues entangled in the city's post-Katrina housing crunch.
"If it's a straightforward eviction, we can't help you," Perry recently said from his New Orleans office. "It has to be discrimination. It's not feasible for us to investigate every single case. We don't have enough resources to help every single person."
Instead, his team tries to take cases that represent broader issues of housing discrimination.
One such case, a lawsuit filed against the city of Denham Springs over a group home for mentally ill people that relocated there after losing its building in New Orleans, is poised for trial in federal court.
Options Foundation Inc., a Baton Rouge nonprofit, manages the group home that bought property in Denham Springs after being forced from New Orleans. Options is suing Denham Springs, which ordered the group home out of town, saying the region is zoned residential and therefore can't accommodate the 22 or so disabled residents.
The four-acre lot off Louisiana 1032 was zoned residential in 2002, but it was home to a halfway house for drug addicts until May 31, 2005, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge. The group home, where residents share household chores and eat dinner together as a family, isn't marked with signs and its neighbors include a nursing home, a thrift shop and trailer parks.
Options Foundation and Perry's group say the city is violating federal fair housing laws by trying to kick out the group home. The City Council denied an October request by Options to allow the home, citing zoning laws.
But Judge Ralph Tyson issued a restraining order, saying Options' case has merit.
Gwen Filosa can be reached at gfilosa@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3304.