Greater Baltimore Community Housing Resource Board, Inc. (GBCHRB) October, 2002 / Vol. 8, No. 5

A newsletter about fair housing, community development, and neighborhood quality of life

Contact us for a free copy of any mentioned article, a free subscription to Fair Housing News, to suggest a topic or story, or to post a notice in Fair HousingNews: 410-453-9500 / 800-895-6302 / mail@gbchrb.org. More info, resources, & links are at our website: http://www.gbchrb.org.

IN THE NEWS

Urban Sprawl Especially Hurts Minorities, Study Says. Robert Bullard, co-editor of Sprawl City: Race, Politics, and Planning in Atlanta and several other studies, points out that the social effects of sprawl - increased economic and racial polarization - hurts minorities in education, employment, and housing. A major voice in the environmental justice movement, Bullard argues in "Race, Equity, and Smart Growth: Why People of Color Must Speak for Themselves" that improvements must be made in schools and transportation to make Smart Growth work. (BaltimoreSun, October 3, 2002:2B)

Report Finds Housing Costs Out of Reach for Many, As Gap Between Housing Costs and Income Widens. Maryland is Seventh Least Affordable State. Out of Reach, by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, found the "housing wage" - the amount a full-time worker has to earn to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment at the fair market rent paying no more than 30% of income - increased 5% in 2001 to $14.66. In Maryland, the housing wage was $16.82 - well above many jobs. Maryland also had the largest increase in the housing wage for 2001, 13.2%. The Baltimore metro had the largest increase in the housing wage in 2002, 22.7%. (www.nlihc.org, October, 2002)

Habitat for Humanity & Mental Health Groups Join to Create Home Ownership. Habitat announced a partnership campaign with the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and the National Mental Health Association to build homes with families where one or more are being treated for a mental illness. (The NIMBY Report, September, 2002:6)

Recent Studies (Mostly) Find Significant Benefit from the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). A 2002 study by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies (The 25th Anniversary of the Community Reinvestment Act: Access to Capital in an Evolving Financial Services System) found a 77% increase in loans to low-moderate households, 94% to African-Americans, 140% to Hispanics. Despite these gains, the number of loans and the homeownership rates for minorities still are below Caucasians. The study also found that financial institutions were now more likely to make loans in low-income communities. However, another study by the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, Bigger, Faster... But Better? How Changes in the Financial Services Industry Affect Small Business Lending in Urban Areas - found small-business loans in low-income communities are decreasing and branch banking was reduced. The rapid consolidation in the banking industry was identified as the primary cause. (HUD's Urban Research Monitor, May-June, 2002:1-2,5)

• New Commemorative Stamp Honoring Thurgood Marshall to be Released in January. The 37-cent stamp - the latest in the Black Heritage Series - was unveiled at the American Bankers Association annual meeting. Marshall, a Baltimore native, was the first black justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, and one of the best-known lawyers in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1954, Marshall and his legal team prevailed in the landmark Supreme Court case, "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas," that struck down segregation in public schools. (Baltimore Sun, August 10, 2002:2A; United States Postal Service press release, July 30, 2002)





• Report Published Detailing Fair Housing Litigation Trends. $180,000,000 and Counting, published by the Fair Housing Council of Metropolitan Detroit, analyzes lawsuits filed and assisted by members of the National Fair Housing Alliance. Some trends: the rate of success in lawsuits was a very high 93.7% in 2001; disability lawsuits increased to 21.1%; the amount of recoveries has increased greatly; and the number of lawsuits filed annually has remained between 150-175. (National Fair Housing Advocate, September, 2002:6)



• The GBCHRB's State-Wide Fair Housing Education Campaign Continues. Funded by the Maryland Department of Housing & Community Development & targeted at the Eastern Shore, southern & western Maryland, the campaign includes distribution of free Fair Housing brochures, self-help guides, posters, and other information; curriculum development; training; and advocacy. Call 410-453-9500 / 800-895-6302 for free Fair Housing informational materials, information, and training.




DID YOU KNOW?

Some interesting web sites are:

** The Brookings Institution www.brook.edu

** Fannie Mae Foundation www.fanniemaefoundation.org

** HUD User www.huduser.org

** Joint Center for Housing Studies www.jchs.harvard.edu/

** Journal of Real Estate Research business.fullerton.edu/journal/

** The Urban Institute www.urban.org



• U.S. Department of Energy Held Workshop on "Cool Solutions" for Row Homes. The Workshop's focus was the education of row homeowners about lowering utility bills via energy efficiency. (FieldWorks, July/August, 2002:1-2)

Contact the GBCHRB for FREE Fair Housing Informational Brochures & Posters. If you will distribute to the public, we will give you as many as you need. Telephone the GBCHRB at 410-453-9500 or mail@gbchrb.org for free copies.

TV Worth Watching!?! Local! Community, Improvements, Housing, Neighborhoods, Living, People, Rights! The GBCHRB's Neighborhood Beat is on various cable-TV stations. The 30-minute interview show runs on Channel 21 & 8 in Baltimore City, 99 in Anne Arundel County, 71 in Baltimore County, 3 in Carroll, and 3 & 7 in Harford! Call us at 410-453-9500 or the stations for the show's days and times!



INTERESTING BOOKS

Whites Confront Racism: Antiracists and Their Paths to Action. by Eileen O'Brien. Rowman-Littlefield, 2001. 176pp. $21.95 pbk. Interesting examination by SUNY-Brockport sociology prof of how 30 individuals and groups are challenging racism in the U.S. While the focus is on People's Institute for Survival & Beyond and Anti-Racist Action, there are many individual portraits and conversations.

The Second Generation: Ethnic Identity Among Asian Americans. Pyong Gap Min, ed. Altamira, 2002. 240pp. $24.95 pbk. Collection of interesting and informative essays on identity issues for recent ethnic Asians from Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Indian, and Vietnamese descent. Among the influential factors treated are language retention, racial awareness, and gender traditionalism.

White Supremacy and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era. by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001. 223pp. $19.95 pbk. Revealing study of current U. S. racial conditions finds the white majority still has numerous negative stereotypes about minorities. For example, many believe whites "are better." The author also documents the history of segregation and the pervasiveness of institutional racism.

America Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences, Volume I. Neil J. Smelser, William Julius Wilson, and Faith Mitchell, eds. National Academy Press, 2001. 480pp. $24.95 pbk. Wide-ranging, authoritative examination of important issues in race relations - socio-demographic trends, minority-owned businesses, racial stratification, segregation, test scores, health status, etc.





Searching for the Uncommon Common Ground: New Dimensions on Race in America. by Angela G. Blackwell, Stewart Kwoh, and Manuel Pastor. W. W. Norton & Company, 2002. 224pp. $15.95 pbk. Interesting discussion of racial equality, including the problem of diversity versus racial and social justice, national versus local responsibility, and structural factors versus individual initiative.



Not Yet Published:

Partners to History: Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and the Civil Rights Movement. by Donzaleigh Abernathy. Crown, January, 2003. $29.95.



Brown V. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy. by James T. Patterson. Oxford University, November, 2002. 318pp. $16.95 pbk. Includes pre-Brown cases, portraits of Thurgood Marshall and Earl Warren, and various responses to the decision.

Patterns of Negro Segregation. by Richard Robbins. University of Notre Dame, December, 2002. 376pp. $21.95 pbk.



REST IN PEACE

Woodrow Wilson Mann, Sr., Principled Mayor of Little Rock, 85. As mayor of Little Rock during the desegregation crisis at Central High School in 1957, Mann urged President Eisenhower to send federal troops to protect black students. He also criticized Governor Orval E. Faubus' calling out the National Guard to block desegregation. Resultingly, Mann received threats on his life, and the end of his political career. He and his family left Little Rock two years later, settling in Texas. (Baltimore Sun, August 12, 2002:6B)

Bill Wassmuth, Activist, 61. Wasmuth was a Roman Catholic priest active in various human rights campaigns. After his home was fire-bombed by the Aryan Nations, Wassmuth founded the North Coalition Against Malicious Harassment, a six-state group fighting prejudice. He also was a key player in the civil lawsuit that subsequently bankrupted the Aryan Nations. (Baltimore Sun, September 2, 2002:4B)

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