Investing in Housing, and Racism

1
Investing in Housing, and Racism

• Affecting people of African descent
• Joseph Schechla, Coordinator
• Habitat International Coalition - Housing and
  Land Rights Network

2
Human Right to Adequate Housing (elements)

• Legal security of tenure
• Services, materials, facilities infrastructure
• Public goods and services
• Environmental goods and services (land water)
• Affordability
• Habitability
• Accessibility
• Location
• Cultural adequacy

3
HRAH congruent rights

• Information, education ca3pacity building
• Participation
• Resettlement, return, restitution, rehabilitation
• Security and privacy (VAW)

4
HRAH over-riding principles

• Self-determination
• Nondiscrimination
• Gender equality
• Rule of law
• International cooperation
• Nonregressivity/nonretrogression

5
Private sector factors

• Sellers and buyers preferences (over profit)
• Agents steering market
• Lending institutions as gatekeepers
• Social pressure

6
Public sector factors

• Planners preferences
• Legislation
• Executive branch policies
• Bias/capacity of judiciary
• Bias in implementation (institutions or personnel)

7
United States of Americapublic investment
benefiting PAD

• Tax Reform Act (1986) dollar-for-dollar
  low-income tax credit for investors
• Hope VI program of urban renewal
• Section 8 voucher system
• American Dream 1st-time grants

8
United States of America public investment
benefiting PAD

• Declining assistance, burgeoning homelessness
• Policy factors regressive budgets
• Proposed cancellation of Hope VI program
• Reduction of Section 8
• Tax cuts for the wealthy

9
USA Landlessness for PAD

• Reconstruction promises broken
• Institutional racism _at_ implementation
• Inadequate capacity-building assistance
• Violent dispossessions
• Discrimination in lending
• Intestacy
• Court-ordered partition sales
• Foreclosure, adverse possession, eminent domain

10

• The trend in African-American land ownership
• In 1920, 1 / 7 farmers was African American in
  1982, 1 / 7 farmers was African American
• In 1910, A-A farmers owned 15.6 million acres of
  farm land nationally by 1982, A-A farmers owned
  3.1 million acres of farm land
• In 1950, A-A farmers in North Carolina owned 1/2
  million acres in 1982, they owned 40,000 acres
• In 1920, A-A operated 926,000 farms in 1982, the
  total had dropped to 33,000 and is steadily
  declining
• In 198485, the USDA lent 1.3 billion to almost
  16,000 farmers nationwide to buy land only 209
  A-A
• Almost half of all A-A-operated farms are smaller
  than 50 acres
• Late 1980s, less than 200 A-A were under the age
  of 25 in 1997, only 745 (4 of total) was under
  35, and the largest age group was those over 70
  (24)

11

• In 1910, A-A owned at least 15 million acres of
  farmland, nearly all in southern States. Today,
  A-A own only 1.1 million acres of farmland and
  are part owners of another 1.07 million acres
• From 1920 to 1992, the number of A-A farmers
  declined from 925,710 to 18,816 or by 98
• In 1982, A-As received only 1 of all farm
  ownership loans, only 2.5 of all farm operating
  loans, and only 1 of all soil-and-water
  conservation loans. Despite some new regulations
  by the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) to
  offset historically discriminatory lending, A-A
  still not adequately funded
• In 1996, 0.5 percent of 1.31 million farmers were
  A-A. During the same period the percentages of
  females and Hispanic farmers increased
• To implement the 92 recommendations in the
  Pigford judgment, including diversifying the
  USDA's staff and setting up a commission, will
  cost 1.2 billion over five years. However for
  1999, only 250 million was budgeted to cover
  also increased funding for loans and the transfer
  of new technology to small farmers.

12
Pigford, Brewington v Glickman and the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (1999).

• Consent Decree recognized the plaintiffs
  claim of systematic discrimination in loans and
  other entitlements
• Did not provide sufficient material relief for
  the injured, restored no lost land, and had no
  impact on the mechanism of USDA loan
  distribution. (The authority rests with
  problematic local commissioners.)

13
Recommendations

• Restore and commensurate increase of Section 8
  housing voucher programs
• Reversal of tax cuts for the wealthiest U.S. tax
  payers
• Preserve Hope VI program with necessary
  correctives to ensure an annual net increase in
  low-cost housing
• Expand LIHTC program and preserve tax incentives
  to investors
• Support alternative tenure arrangements, such as
  limited equity cooperatives
• Immediate, diligent and effective increase in
  advice-and-lending services, on an
  affirmative-action basis, within the Farmers Home
  Administration and other public lending
  institutions
• Reform State laws of intestacy
• Public -interest lawyers and community services
  to provide capacity-building assistance, esp. in
  cases of unstable in-common tenancy

14
Recommendations (contd.)

• Cease land confiscation through foreclosure,
  adverse possession and eminent domain
• Establish land consolidation courts to restore
  and preserve land titles, on an
  affirmative-action basis
• Establish and maintain an effective
  African-American Land Trust to support and expand
  land ownership by people of African descent on an
  affirmative-action basis
• Cease court-ordered partition sales of
  African-Americans land in cases of dispute over
  land held in common
• Reverse and prosecute discriminatory practices by
  both public and private lending institutions
  toward African-American land owners
• U.S. Department of Agriculture and/or other
  public agencies to provide adequate technical,
  marketing and research assistance on an
  affirmative-action basis.

15
B r a z i lPolicy Priorities

• 1988 Constitution raising racism to felony
• Unified Healthcare System
• Social Welfare Act
• Statute of the Cities (2001)
• National Human Rights Plan of Action
• Interministerial Group for Promotion of Black
  Population (1995)
• Program for Urbanization, Regularization and
  Integration of Slum Settlements
• Papel Passando to ensure secure tenure
• National Affirmative Action Program (2002)
• Zero Hunger program
• National fund for Housing in the National
  Interest

16
B r a z i l Problem areas

• Quilombos
• Displacements
• From quilombo to agrovila
• Land and livelihood

17
Recommendations

• Address the compensation and restitution claims
  of the communities already relocated
• Cease all new relocations of quilombo communities
  until adequate and consensual solutions are found
  that ensure the fulfillment of all elements of
  the human right to adequate housing
• Immediate, diligent and effective delivery of
  essential services to individuals and communities
  affected by the quilombo relocations
• Accelerate the process of regularizing land and
  housing tenure for quilombo inhabitants

18
Recommendations (contd.)

• Reform intestacy laws to narrow the class of
  heirs and prevent fractionation
• Capacity-building assistance for quilombos to
  defend their housing and land rights
• Legislate safeguards for Afro-Brazilian tenure
  holders and landowners without
• Prohibit in law and policy the confiscation of
  Afro-Brazilians land and housing by foreclosure,
  adverse possession and public purposes without a
  proper hearing and consultation, due process,
  compensation and rehabilitation
• Reverse and prosecute discriminatory practices by
  both public and private lending institutions
  toward Afro-Brazilians.

19
State obligations

• Government Culpability, Public Solutions
• Reform
• Affirmative action
• Meaningful restitution, compensation