Kez
28th April 2002, 13:09
THE WAR AT HOME: GIMME SHELTER
By Greg Butterfield
"Gimme Shelter" was a hit song for the Rolling Stones in
1969. But in 2002 it's the refrain of many working-class
people who find themselves forced out of house and home.
While Washington sends millions of dollars a day to Israel,
helping the apartheid government there as it bulldozes
Palestinian homes into rubble, homelessness in the United
States jumped by 13 percent last year. That means 798,000
people are homeless on any given night.
In major cities it's worse. Homelessness grew 22 percent in
Chicago, 20 percent in San Francisco, and 32 percent in
Washington, D.C. In New York, the number of homeless
families has risen 30 percent in the last two years.
(Washington Post, Dec. 21, 2001)
A Colorado Department of Human Services study found that
families make up 65 percent of Denver's homeless population.
That's up from 25 percent 12 years ago. (Denver Post, Feb.
27)
Mary McAtee of Connecticut's Coalition for the Homeless said
that state is "turning away record numbers of people"
seeking emergency shelter-11,241 last year.
State and local officials feign surprise. But they helped
the federal government lay the groundwork for this crisis by
shifting money away from social programs and putting it into
the pockets of the rich.
A prime example: the 1996 welfare "reform" law signed by
Bill Clinton.
The welfare repeal took away the right to public assistance.
The labor movement of the 1930s and the civil-rights
movement of the 1960s had fought hard to win that right.
They had to, because capitalism can never provide enough
real, living-wage jobs for everyone who needs them.
Tens of thousands were forced to take workfare jobs with no
rights, employment guarantees or wages other than a meager
assistance check. Workfare provides a source of cheap,
disposable labor to government agencies and private
companies, helping them undermine unions.
In December, the lifetime limits on aid mandated by the 1996
law started to kick in-just as the number of available jobs
hit rock bottom.
That's not all. Public housing programs were cut back during
the 1990s while rents rocketed. The government aided
landlords in their price-gouging by easing restrictions on
rent hikes and cutting back enforcement of fair-housing
standards.
Today the Bush administration continues to slash the
tattered remains of the safety net while offering tax breaks
to the rich and billions more to the Pentagon.
RACISM BY LANDLORDS, BANKS
Two new studies show how racism fuels the housing crisis.
On April 3 the National Fair Housing Alliance released its
annual "Trends Report" documenting illegal discrimination
against tenants based on race, national origin, sex,
disabilities and other factors.
The group studied 24,000 complaints compiled from government
agencies and local fair-housing organizations-"a small
fraction of the annual incidence of housing discrimination
across the United States," according to NFHA. The Department
of Housing and Urban Development estimates over 2 million
people actually face discrimination in renting or buying a
home every year.
Race was the most common basis for housing discrimination,
found in 32 percent of the cases. Disability was next with
24 percent, then familial status with 15 percent.
Most reported cases of racist discrimination involved
African Americans. But discrimination against Latinos and
Asians is seriously underreported, NFHA says. A rental audit
in Fresno, Calif., Houston and San Antonio found that Latino
renters faced discrimination 70 percent of the time.
The report suggests that sexual harassment of female tenants
also goes largely unreported.
An April 2 study released by New York Sen. Charles Schumer's
office found that banks continue to discriminate against New
York's Black homeowners, forcing many to take loans from
high-cost, abusive lenders.
These so-called subprime lenders provided 43 percent of home
loans in Black neighborhoods, but only 9 percent in white
neighborhoods.
The study showed that banks denied loan applications from
Black people at nearly twice the rate for whites, even when
they had similar incomes. Black people with incomes over
$67,440 were rejected more often than whites with incomes
under $45,000. Overall, the rejection rate for Blacks was 28
percent, compared with 15 percent for whites.
Schumer suggested a modest program to match up banks with
prospective home buyers in Black neighborhoods. But that
won't solve the problem of institutionalized racism, poverty
and unemployment.
What's needed is a militant grassroots movement of tenants,
working-class homeowners and the homeless to proclaim,
"Housing is a right!"
Comrade Kamo
By Greg Butterfield
"Gimme Shelter" was a hit song for the Rolling Stones in
1969. But in 2002 it's the refrain of many working-class
people who find themselves forced out of house and home.
While Washington sends millions of dollars a day to Israel,
helping the apartheid government there as it bulldozes
Palestinian homes into rubble, homelessness in the United
States jumped by 13 percent last year. That means 798,000
people are homeless on any given night.
In major cities it's worse. Homelessness grew 22 percent in
Chicago, 20 percent in San Francisco, and 32 percent in
Washington, D.C. In New York, the number of homeless
families has risen 30 percent in the last two years.
(Washington Post, Dec. 21, 2001)
A Colorado Department of Human Services study found that
families make up 65 percent of Denver's homeless population.
That's up from 25 percent 12 years ago. (Denver Post, Feb.
27)
Mary McAtee of Connecticut's Coalition for the Homeless said
that state is "turning away record numbers of people"
seeking emergency shelter-11,241 last year.
State and local officials feign surprise. But they helped
the federal government lay the groundwork for this crisis by
shifting money away from social programs and putting it into
the pockets of the rich.
A prime example: the 1996 welfare "reform" law signed by
Bill Clinton.
The welfare repeal took away the right to public assistance.
The labor movement of the 1930s and the civil-rights
movement of the 1960s had fought hard to win that right.
They had to, because capitalism can never provide enough
real, living-wage jobs for everyone who needs them.
Tens of thousands were forced to take workfare jobs with no
rights, employment guarantees or wages other than a meager
assistance check. Workfare provides a source of cheap,
disposable labor to government agencies and private
companies, helping them undermine unions.
In December, the lifetime limits on aid mandated by the 1996
law started to kick in-just as the number of available jobs
hit rock bottom.
That's not all. Public housing programs were cut back during
the 1990s while rents rocketed. The government aided
landlords in their price-gouging by easing restrictions on
rent hikes and cutting back enforcement of fair-housing
standards.
Today the Bush administration continues to slash the
tattered remains of the safety net while offering tax breaks
to the rich and billions more to the Pentagon.
RACISM BY LANDLORDS, BANKS
Two new studies show how racism fuels the housing crisis.
On April 3 the National Fair Housing Alliance released its
annual "Trends Report" documenting illegal discrimination
against tenants based on race, national origin, sex,
disabilities and other factors.
The group studied 24,000 complaints compiled from government
agencies and local fair-housing organizations-"a small
fraction of the annual incidence of housing discrimination
across the United States," according to NFHA. The Department
of Housing and Urban Development estimates over 2 million
people actually face discrimination in renting or buying a
home every year.
Race was the most common basis for housing discrimination,
found in 32 percent of the cases. Disability was next with
24 percent, then familial status with 15 percent.
Most reported cases of racist discrimination involved
African Americans. But discrimination against Latinos and
Asians is seriously underreported, NFHA says. A rental audit
in Fresno, Calif., Houston and San Antonio found that Latino
renters faced discrimination 70 percent of the time.
The report suggests that sexual harassment of female tenants
also goes largely unreported.
An April 2 study released by New York Sen. Charles Schumer's
office found that banks continue to discriminate against New
York's Black homeowners, forcing many to take loans from
high-cost, abusive lenders.
These so-called subprime lenders provided 43 percent of home
loans in Black neighborhoods, but only 9 percent in white
neighborhoods.
The study showed that banks denied loan applications from
Black people at nearly twice the rate for whites, even when
they had similar incomes. Black people with incomes over
$67,440 were rejected more often than whites with incomes
under $45,000. Overall, the rejection rate for Blacks was 28
percent, compared with 15 percent for whites.
Schumer suggested a modest program to match up banks with
prospective home buyers in Black neighborhoods. But that
won't solve the problem of institutionalized racism, poverty
and unemployment.
What's needed is a militant grassroots movement of tenants,
working-class homeowners and the homeless to proclaim,
"Housing is a right!"
Comrade Kamo