WCity Council member Adam McFadden will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, February 22, on housing discrimination. McFadden introduced legislation last summer that would prohibit landlords and property managers from discriminating against potential renters based on their actual or perceived source of income.
The discrimination locks people into poor neighborhoods, McFadden has said, preventing them from improving their lives. It also ensures that the city’s concentration of poverty continues, he said.
“I want to be clear, because there is a lot of misinformation circulating about this legislation,” McFadden said. “In no way does the legislation mandate that people receiving assistance are guaranteed a specific rental. This legislation is about access; it’s about giving people a chance. The way our current system is set up, people who are receiving income assistance for housing can be denied or refused before they apply for an apartment.”
In the past, landlords have said that the problem has to do with the system, not discrimination. Landlords can be left holding the bag if the renter’s source of income suddenly gets cut off, they’ve said.
The legislation has been sitting in committee since July 2016. Wednesday’s hearing is at 5:30 p.m. in City Council chambers at City Hall, 30 Church Street.
This article appears in Feb 15-21, 2017.
Adam, if you cared about your constituents you would be helping these people find jobs, not blame the private sector for their way of life.
What have you done to improve the education results of city residents?
What have you done to make the city a place that welcomes businesses?
What have you done to reduce the criminal activity in the city?
What have you done to help create jobs in the city?
What have you done to lower the cost of homeownership in the city?
In short, this is the kind of stuff you would be doing if you really cared and were not just pandering. Help these people become independent from government help, not tie them tighter to the teet.
“The discrimination locks people into poor neighborhoods,”
If you’re poor, you live in a poor neighborhood. That’s life… We’d all love a 300k home in the burbs, but that’s not reality.
Eric is right. If you want to live in a better neighborhood, you improve yourself. You increase your own income. You don’t get the new lifestyle first, before earning it. Just look at Charlotte and the eastern part of Greece. The residents haven’t been uplifted, but the neighborhoods have definitely gone downhill.
Ok, Mr mcfadden let’s talk. I fully understand your reasoning for doing this, but I have to tell you, I disagree with being FORCED to accept money from which I ‘m not comfortable with. PERIOD! You make it a law, fine, I will sell my property sooner than later. Why ? Because I know what Sect. 8 puts landlords thru, even the good ones. Government has it’s tentacles in our lives daily as is. See what comes out of this. Landlords UNITE! Shutter those houses!