Housing Reform: One Vote - One Disqualification

Mikaela says:
I was just talking to my students today about the history of Housing Reform in America, from the disastrous Housing Act of 1949 that kicked off the inner-city neighborhood decimating period of Urban Renewal to the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 that provided Community Development Block Grants and eventually Urban Development Action Grants to fund much-needed intiatives for housing and economic development in our poorest neighborhoods.

We talked about how conservative administrations undercut these programs and left neighborhoods to once again fend for themselves in the unfair playing field of capitalism that stacks the cards against them.

We talked about how once you decide as a society

1. What housing conditions every person is entitled to as a basic human condition,
2. What the role of government should be in providing that for each citizen, and
   
3. What the right level of public investment should be to procure decent housing for each person,
   

then you have to figure out what the right method for dispersing public investment should be, whether:

1. Direct investment in infrastructure or public housing,
2. Indirect investment in businesses and/or capital markets,
3. Direct subsidies to put money/food into the hands of those who need it,
4. Indirect subsidies to/from local governments so that they can decide how to distribute it, or
   
5. Indirect subsides to non-profit and community organizations who can provide to residents.
   

What I didn't tell them was the most recent setback, reported today by Bitch Ph.D.:

The House of Representatives is/was supposed to vote today on H.R. 1461, the Housing Finance Reform Act. It supports creation of affordable housing. Good, right? Well, there's a little provision that's been tacked on by the Republican Study Committee to disqualify non-profits from applying for money if they've engaged in any voter participation activities in the previous year--including non-partisan registering of voters. In other words, this provision ties funding low-income housing to suppressing low-income voting. According to today's House minutes, it looks like a final vote on the bill has been postponed; do contact your Representative to ask them to pass the bill without the RSC provision attached.

Maybe it's just as well. I'm trying to get them to consider Planning as a viable career, not just a gynormous waste of time, energy, and talent in the interest of an impossible cause -- helping communities help themselves by empowering them to understand their own agency and considerable assets while simultaneously leveling the playing field whenever possible so that it's not all so incredibly fucking unfair.

Once again, the conservatives are way ahead of us. The fight goes on.