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Posts Tagged ‘housing’

Why Isn’t Housing Considered a Right? Looking at Recent Evictions in Brazil

6:41 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Brazil|housing · 3 Comments

30 Aug 2009

On Monday, following a court order, 240 police went to evict 800 families from the Olga Benário squatter settlement in an area called Capão Redondo, sprawling southern São Paulo. The property had been occupied for two years by hundreds of families, many from the social movement Frente de Luta por Moradia (the Front of Struggle for Housing). The property’s owner, a transport company, was able to get an eviction order from a judge, even though it owes back taxes, and even as the State Public Defender’s office was attempting to protect the residents. The eviction ended with burned houses and cars, and hundreds of families on the street in the mud.

Having just come out of a personal housing crisis myself here in NYC where the cost of living continues to rise and gentrification is swooping into neighborhoods of color making it hard for old timers to stay, and for new immigrants to find homes, I have to wonder why isn’t housing a right, especially for families with children?

Judge says “no” to housing discrimination in Texas

5:38 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|Justice|Texas · Comments Off

23 May 2007

We’ve written a couple of times about Farmers Branch, Texas, and the quest of some there to make discrimination against undocumented immigrants city policy. In addition to attempts to make English the “official” language of the city, legislation was proposed which would impede landlords from renting to the undocumented. Voters in the town supported discriminatory law, pushing it to approval with 68 percent voting in favor, but at the urging of MALDEF and attorneys for landloards, a federal judge said “no”:

U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay wrote in granting a temporary restraining order that only the federal government can determine whether a person is in the United States legally.

Latino family hardship rates high

6:54 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Family|Health|Money|society · Comments Off

21 Nov 2006

According to data just released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Latino and African American families are having a hard time making ends meet, and “experience difficulty affording food, lack needed medical care, and/or live in overcrowded conditions.”

The report finds that 28 percent of African American families with children, and 31 percent of families headed by a Latino citizen, experience at least one of the above three hardships at some point during the year, according to the survey. This is double the rate for non-Latino white families with children (14 percent). This disparity largely reflects the fact that poverty rates are several times higher for African American and Latino families than for white families.

This striking data comes from a Census Bureau survey which, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, is valuable in learning about hardship levels, but is at risk of being terminated by Congress. A senior researcher at the Center says “If this survey is eliminated, we will lose one of our best means of understanding what it’s like to be poor in this country.”

Via / U.S. Newswire

Image via Oxfam UK

Get a Brazilian city for just 2 million bucks

11:36 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|housing · Comments Off

7 Nov 2006

1%20IMG_3768.jpg Sky-high property prices may make it impossible for most of us to buy a house in San Francisco or New York City, but for a mere $2.2 million you can get a whole Brazilian city. An abandoned one, yes, but one with 70 houses, a 22 room hotel, a grocery store and much more. It’s like playing dollies!

Located in Southeast Brazil, in the state of Minas Gerais, the ghost town has but one inhabitant: an engineer named Nilton Braz, who takes care of the place and is in charge of the sale, according to Spain’s 20 Minutos.

The city, built 35 years ago to house the workers on the Jaguará dam project has 70 houses, a 22-room hotel, a grocery store, a town square, a school, , tiene 70 casas, un hotel de 22 habitaciones, un supermercado, plaza, escuela, a church and paved streets…

The best part? It’s never been lived in.

According to 20 Minutos, there have been offers to buy the city from as far away as the U.S. and Germany.

Check out the town’s website: I think I even see some swimming pools in the photos.

Via / 20 Minutos

ACLU sues city for discriminatory housing policies

1:46 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Controversia|Immigration · Comments Off

6 Nov 2006

Following in the footsteps of other towns across the country, Escondido, California has decided to write discrimination into its laws by forbidding landlords to rent to undocumented immigrants. But our friends at the ACLU and a coalition of immigrants rights groups are striking back:

Saying the law is “riddled with constitutional flaws” and is discriminatory and “reprehensible,” a coalition of civil rights groups has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to void an Escondido ordinance that forbids landlords from renting to illegal immigrants.

The suit was filed yesterday on behalf of two Escondido landlords and two illegal immigrants who live in the city and whose children are U.S. citizens who attend local schools.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, the decision to move forward with the lawsuit was announced last week via press conference, while the Minutemen held an “unrelated” press conference at the Escondido city hall, “interrupted by a minor scuffle”.

Full House

12:01 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Family|Georgia|Immigration|society · Comments Off

18 Jan 2006

It seems that officials in the cradle of the “New Latino South”, Georgia, are looking to make sure too many people don’t occupy a single dwelling. Too many immigrants, that is. In reponse to complaints about overcrowded homes in the state, Georgia officials are inspecting dwellings housing numerous Latino immigrants:

In Cobb County, housing code officers say they need more stringent regulations to handle a growing number of complaints about overcrowded homes. Last week, county zoning officials proposed an ordinance to reduce the number of unrelated people who can live together under one roof from six to four.

Street Easy Makes Finding a NYC Dwelling Easy

8:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Internet|New York City · Comments Off

3 Jan 2006

If you’re a New York City resident and one of your New Year’s resolutions is to find a new place to buy and to move into, Street Easy is a new website that can help make the difficult process easier.

You can search for apartments and houses available for sale in all five boroughs of New York City. You can search the listings which are compiled from different real estate brokers by type of dwelling you want, number of bedrooms, price range and of course neighborhoods. The site is constantly adding new features and is a promising new online resource for New York City house hunters.

Via / zonageek

Voice Discrimination?

10:05 am By Maegan La Mala · California|language · Comments Off

21 Nov 2005

Although discrimination nowadays for the most part is not as blatant as in the past it is still a social ill that occurs. Unfortunately, latinos may still face hurdles when it comes to finding housing simply due to the sound of their voice. According to an audit by a housing rights group, Fair Housing of Marin:

“rental seekers with an identifiable Latino voice will face discrimination or disparate treatment in Napa County 70 percent of the time.”

I wonder what the rate is across the state of California? Perhaps this is one of the reasons why many cities are essentially segregated.

Via / Napa Valley Register

Maegan La Mala: Thank you Julio! To be honest I was a little nervous. [...]

Ana L. Flores: I was very excited when you decided to join us. I really wanted your voice there as it would add dep [...]

Maegan La Mala: Hola Juliana and thanks for commenting. There is a dearth in activist/critical thinking Latino blogg [...]

Julio Ricardo Varela: Good for you for asking. I got goose bumps just reading this and yes, yes, yes, to it all. Thank you [...]

julianabritto: The sense that I get is that you might feel a little frustrated at the dearth in activist bloggers? [...]

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