[Peace] Champaign City Council Votes 6-3 Against Section 8

[John W.]

I reiterate....it seems like the very definition of futility to serve on 
any of the City of Champaign's "Human Relations" type commissions.

John Wason



At 09:19 AM 10/10/2007, Brian Dolinar wrote:

>Champaign City Council held a study session Tuesday night, Oct 9, 2007 on 
>whether to repeal the Human Rights protections for Section 8 recipients. 
>The original anti-discrimination ordinance was forwarded by Giraldo 
>Rosales, who was voted off of city council in 2006. A pro-business, 
>pro-development majority now sits on the city council. After cancelling 
>any further talks about a police review board and cutting township 
>assistance to the poorest of the poor, the city council is now set to 
>legalize discrimination against Section 8 recipients.
>
>Mark Aber of the Human Relations Board made a presentation that was 
>generally in support of the Section 8 protections. He said that only 3-4 
>percent of Section 8 recipients break their leases and reported that they 
>are "very reluctant" to do so because they will lose their assistance. 
>Executive Director of the Housing Authority, Ed Bland, said that there are 
>1,358 Section 8 recipients in Champaign County, bringing in $8 million of 
>federal funds. There is no shortage of landlords willing to rent to 
>Section 8 recipients. For many, this means a monthly federal check that 
>comes straight from the government, never passing through the tenant's 
>hands. Still, before the ordinance there were complaints of 
>discrimination, many from African Americans.
>
>After the so-called "study session," the Mayor took a poll on the Section 
>8 repeal. The city council voted 6-3 to repeal. Ken Pirok, Tom Bruno, Vic 
>McIntosh, Deb Feinen, Karen Foster, and Mayor Schweighart all voted on the 
>side of landlords and against the poor. The majority vote was led by Ken 
>Pirok, himself a landlord, who spoke like a member of the working class:
>
>"I'm a landlord in this town. I'm a landlord that accepts Section 8 
>voluntarily. I'm a landlord who has actually had Section 8 tenants – and 
>has filled out the paper work. And I know a LOT of landlords. There's a 
>common misperception that landlords are a bunch of rich fat cats, when the 
>actually reality is these landlords around town, they are hardworking 
>blue-collar people. They are like to be the kind of person that you shake 
>their hand and they have paint under their fingernails. Those are the 
>people who are landlords in this town. And there are a lot of landlords in 
>this town who, if they miss a few payments from their tenant, they have 
>problems paying their own bills. So I just have a problem requiring 
>landlords to accept Section 8."
>
>Gina Jackson, Marci Dodds, and Michael La Due voted for the Section 8 
>protections.
>
>Like the discussion over the Citizen Police Review Board in July, the 
>majority on the Champaign city council showed the public that no matter 
>how convincing their arguments to stop discrimination and protect the 
>poor, they will do whatever the hell they want to. Developers get millions 
>in tax abatements, while the poor are thrown out onto the streets to fend 
>for themselves.
>There will be a final vote next week, October 16 at 7 p.m.
>
>--
>Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
>303 W. Locust St.
>Urbana, IL 61801
><mailto:briandolinar at gmail.com>briandolinar at gmail.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace/attachments/20071010/6a5bc75b/attachment.html