Investing in Housing, and Racism

Affecting people of African descent

Joseph Schechla, CoordinatorHabitat International Coalition - Housing and Land Rights Network

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

HRAH: congruent rights

• Information, education & ca3pacity

building

• Participation

• Resettlement, return, restitution,

rehabilitation

• Security and privacy (VAW)

HRAH: over-riding principles

• Self-determination

• Nondiscrimination

• Gender equality

• Rule of law

• International cooperation

• Nonregressivity/nonretrogression

Private sector factors

• Sellers’ and buyers’ preferences (over profit)

• Agents “steering” market

• Lending institutions as gatekeepers

• Social pressure

Public sector factors

• Planners’ preferences

• Legislation

• Executive branch policies

• Bias/capacity of judiciary

• Bias in implementation (institutions or personnel)

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

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

USA: Landlessness for PAD

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

eminent domain

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 1984–85, 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%);

• 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.

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.)

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;

Recommendations (cont’d.)• 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.

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

B r a z i l Problem areas

• Quilombos

• Displacements

– From quilombo to agrovila

– Land and livelihood

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;

Recommendations (cont’d.)• 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.

State obligations

Government Culpability, Public Solutions

Reform

Affirmative action

Meaningful restitution, compensation