"April is Fair Housing Month"
Essay and Poster Contest
" In the Declaration of Independence, written in 1776,
it says that all men are created equal. Sadly today, over 200 years later, that
is still not a reality. In many places around the nation and around the world,
prejudice is still an ugly fact of life. Fortunately, there are many good people
working towards the end of such discrimination."
So begins St. Cecilia High School student Thomas Oldham’s
essay for the "April is Fair Housing Month" Poster and Essay Contest,
conducted in three Nebraska high schools in March and April. The first contest
was completed at Lincoln N.E. High School with permission from Principal Kim
Shepard. Angie Wortman with the City of Lincoln Commission on Human Rights,
provides more information about Lincoln’s contest on page 2.
The second contest was completed at St. Cecilia High School
in Hastings. Principal Marie Butler, who decided to have all the students
participate in the contest, invited Public Education and Outreach Director
Gretchen Eure to make a presentation to the school on housing impediments. The
award ceremony at St. Cecilia’s was completed at a Public Forum conducted in
April. Hastings State Bank and Members of Business Industry,
and Education Partnership were co-sponsors of this contest.
The third contest was completed at Omaha South High School
with Principal Jerry Bartee’s support. Antoinette Turnquist, Fine Arts
Department Chair, Instructor Mellanee Kvasnicka, as well as counselors,
participated. NEOC’s Executive Director Mr. Al Whitaker and Ms. Eure made a
presentation to students, but the instructors reported the students also viewed
the film "A Raisin in the Sun" written by Lorraine Hansberry.
Co-sponsors of Omaha South’s contest were Metro Community College, Roy
Smith, and US Bank. Oldham’s winning essay, and segments of other
winning essays, along with six winning posters, are included in this
issue.
Chad Elsasser
Omaha South High
Second Place Winner
Poster and Essay Contest Report: Lincoln
by Angie Wortman
The Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission, the Lincoln
Commission on Human Rights (LCHR), US Bank, and the Lincoln Board of
Realtors sponsored a Fair Housing essay contest at Lincoln Northeast High School
for the month of April. With April being Fair Housing Month, this was a suitable
time to bring awareness to students what Fair Housing means, and a time to
discuss the various impediments to housing in the City of Lincoln, and America
as a whole.
The theme of this years’ contest was "One
Neighborhood, One America." Five students submitted entries for the
contest, ranging from 9th graders to 12th graders. Ryan Zatloukal received the
first place prize, a $100 savings bond. Ryan’s essay was about his personal
experiences being from a large family and the difficulty in finding affordable
housing for large families. Ryan touches on a growing issue here in Lincoln and
in Nebraska. Of the scarce number of houses available to house a large family
many are dilapidated, overcome with roaches or rodents, and do not have
sufficient utilities.
Miranda Powell received the 2nd place prize, a $75 savings
bond. Miranda wrote about personal experiences with the lack of proper housing
for the disabled. In her closing, Miranda states, "I believe that the
disabled have the capacity to enjoy life so much more than us, and do it. Help
them reach that capacity until it’s over flowing, let them live how they want
to!"
The three third prize winners were Jennifer Carpenter,
Priscilla Castillo, and Tam Vo. They each received a $50 savings bond. The three
third place essays ranged from public housing overrun by drugs and gangs,
national origin and race discrimination in housing, to the lack of affordable
housing for large families.
On April 17, 2000, the awards were announced at Lincoln
Northeast High, and the students were given awards for participating in the
contest. The savings bonds were mailed to the school at a later date.
I would like to thank the Nebraska Equal Opportunity
Commission, US Bank, Lincoln Board of Realtors and the Lincoln
Urban Development Department for their help with the contest, and also the
Northeast High teachers and students who helped observe the month of April as
Fair Housing Month. Education and awareness are essential in an effort to end
housing discrimination and the various impediments associated with housing.
"One Neighborhood, One America" is not only a theme, but the pulling
together of communities, a well obtainable goal.
Angie Wortman is an investigator with the City of Lincoln
Commission on Human Rights.
Jason VanHaitsma
Omaha South High
Third Place Winner
Essay
Lauren Skoch
St. Cecilia
Second Place Winner
"In Hastings, I didn't really notice any "bad
housing areas" until we had our assembly. In each section of Hastings
there are every type of living quarters. You have really elaborate homes,
your nice cottages, your "perfect sized homes", then there are
apartments that are built to hold the overflowing population that is
growing everyday!! Even then the landlords are making restrictions on who,
or what can live in their apartments. Every time a new piece of land
becomes available, a new house or apartment building goes up…so that
raises the question, "Why aren't people treated equally when buying a
home?" A person may be denied the right of housing because of their
color or family origin.
Segregation is the separation or isolation of a race,
class, or ethnic group by enforced or voluntary residence in a restricted
area. It should not be used as a way to determine who or who cannot live
in a house. Race, class or ethnic group is not a fair way of picking the
occupants of a house. Another person seeking a home, may be deprived
because they are a woman or man. That is called sexism. Sexism is
prejudice or discrimination based on gender. It is ridiculous to think a
person cannot live in an area because of their gender.
Other people may be discriminated because of physical handicaps. Any
house should be able to be turned into a handicap accessible house. It is
very pathetic to see so little amounts of handicap areas. Even my school
isn't handicap accessible!! What if someone came to our school who would
need a elevator, or a ramp. What we would we do? Would the school have to
go under major construction? Would we have to build a new school? Or would
we have to turn away a student just because we don't have the necessary
needs for those with disabilities?"
Omaha South High Award Ceremony
Essay
Priscilla Castillo
Lincoln Northeast High
Third Place Winner
Why can’t everyone be treated equally? It’s bad no one
is perfect not white or black not even brown. Some times I think to
myself, "I’m not wanted anyplace so why should I live?"
My house it’s so small it’s a 2 bedroom with 6 people living in it.
Essay
Priscilla Castillo
Lincoln Northeast High
Third Place Winner
"According to our Constitution, every person is
equal, but that is certainly not true for the numerous people who have
poor housing conditions. The problems they face are unfair and
undeserved. We need to do now what we claim to have always wanted to do
and that is to improve the quality of life for all humans. Let’s get
on the right path and work together as one society to achieve these very
attainable goals."
Essay
Ryan Zatloukal
Lincoln Northeast High
First Place Winner
Growing up in a family of eight members, six children,
a father and a mother, I have experienced some of these impediments first
hand. My family has lived in a lot of locations in it's existence. When I
was just a baby into my toddler years my family had to live in a run down
farm home because it was all we could afford, this touches upon lack of
housing and the affordable housing for low income families impediments. I
believe that the price of housing, even back then could have been more
reasonable so that maybe we could have had a little nicer of a place.
Shortly after, we moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where
we couldn't find any place large enough and cheap enough for us to live in
without a lot of discomfort. We lived in our car for two weeks before
finding a shelter with room for our family. This was a very impacting part
of my life, that's why I chose to write an essay about it and the impact
these impediments may have had upon my life. I am very aware that this
essay is about the impediments of the Nebraska Equal Opportunity
Commission but these things do happen in places other than Nebraska, and
even though these things didn't happen to us in Nebraska, they are
happening to many more people than any of us could probably even know and
many of these people live here in Nebraska, hell, even here in Lincoln.
When we moved back to Nebraska at the beginning of 1997
we looked all around town for a place that would be suitable for the few
remaining members of the family and finally ended up in a townhouse. We
paid six-hundred and fifty dollars a month for this two bedroom place, we
had two people in each bedroom, I slept on the couch, we were bringing in,
if lucky, eight-hundred dollars a month, we had utilities and food to pay
for, not to mention clothing.
We moved from there and into a seven hundred dollars a
month house, we now bring in a thousand a month after my father had to
quit his job after having three heart attacks within a two month period of
time, we owe hospital bills and utilities and have a lot of trouble paying
the bills after the seven hundred dollars for rent. Then to add insult to
injury the house is falling apart, the plumbing sucks, the heater and air
conditioning are practically not there and now rodents are taking refuge
in our house.
I have so many more experiences that would help you get
the picture of how crappy housing is always has been and probably always
will be, but I'm sure I probably have already bored you all that are
reading this and probably didn't touch on the subject enough, and that's
not gonna help you or us out any, so I will start more upon the topic.
A lot of people have families that are larger than mine
and I know that most of them have a hard time getting a good house and a
lot of them have really low income and so it is hard for them, like it is
for us, to get a place. My heart goes out to them and I wish that I could
do something to help them get a place, but alas I can't. You all might be
able to, and this I ask you dear sirs and madam, will you please help
them.
That last part was a little emotional and hard to write
so now I'm going to go simpler. The prices of houses that large families
with low income would be best in, are way to high and need to be reduced.
Then the owners totally neglect the maintenance of the houses, so what
ends up happening is, a large family gets into a small house that almost
immediately starts to break apart and decay. This happens at a constant
rate and the families end up on the street where they will end up raising
the homeless rate in America and eventually will probably die at a young
age. This I believe is a big problem in America and could even become a
bigger problem.
I don't know about anybody else, but I for one do not
want my family to grow in an America that is like this. I can't even stand
the world as it is today.
Essay
Miranda Powell
Lincoln Northeast High
Second Place Winner
"I'm sure you've all had family members in a
wheelchair or have some other kind of disability and my family is no
different. When my great-grandma was still alive she had to use a
wheelchair and since her house didn't come with a ramp one was built for
her. It was built over the steps to her front door. Now my grandma on my
father's side is in a wheel chair and has Parkinson's disease, which
requires her to get a lot of help. Since we weren't able to give her the
kind of help she needed we had to put her in a manor that could
accommodate her needs that we couldn't. But things like this can build
guilt, at times be a burden to the family and the bills can be rather
expensive or families can't even afford these things. This is one of the
problems in today's housing developments, proper housing for the disabled.
This really shouldn't even be happening; we have lived around the disabled
for years, three decades at least. I guess that just makes it hard for me
to believe that we still don't have proper or even affordable housing for
these people! It's really not their fault that something happened to them
at some point in their life that made them that way. So we should try and
treat them the way we treat people without disabilities, as much as we
possible can. In doing this we should try and compensate for these people
by building special houses and or living complexes such as apartments to
help them live as normal as they can."
Essay
Jennifer Carpenter
Lincoln Northeast High
Third Place Winner
"I also believe that there shouldn’t be an apartment complex with
a no children policy cause no matter who you meet, there is always going to
be a child involved one way or another. The "no children" policy
makes children feel not wanted, and the children policy makes us feel like
pets. For instance, a house or an apartment that you rent will sometimes say
no pets allowed."
Mandy Norton
Omaha South High
First Place Winner
Essay
Thomas Oldham
St. Cecilia
First Place Winner
"In the Declaration of Independence, written in 1776,
it says that all men are created equal. Sadly today, over 200 years later,
that is still not a reality. In many places around the nation and around the
world, prejudice is still an ugly fact of life. Fortunately, there are many
good people working towards the end of such discrimination.
Discrimination takes many different forms. One of the most
common ways that people are discriminated against in this country is in the
availability of housing. When this happens, many people do not even realize
that they are being discriminated against. Taking such a fundamental right
away, such as a roof over one's head and a safe place to stay, says that this
country is truly in a poor state.
When renting an apartment, a landlord cannot give
preference to one person over another. That is discrimination. Yet it still
happens every day in many different ways. Some forms of discrimination are not
quite as recognizable as others. Surely all decent people realize that when a
landlord gives an apartment to a white person because he or she is white and
refuses an African American simply because he or she is an African-American,
that is wrong. It is very clearly racial discrimination.
But what about a landlord who requires a larger deposit
from an African-American family than from a white family? That is also racial
discrimination. It is also wrong. There are ways to discriminate other than
racial discrimination, too. If a landlord does not rent to a family with
children, simply because they have children, that is discrimination.
In other cases, a damage deposit is required from a family
with children that is not required from childless couples or single people.
That is discrimination as well.
There are other, more subtle ways of discrimination than
denying, or raising the price of an apartment. There have been cases where a
landlord was eager to rent to a person when they talked on the phone, but as
soon as they saw each other in person, the landlord suddenly become less
eager. If the landlord sees something that he or she does not like in the
other person ( whether that be race, children, etc.), the story changes. A
common one is "I just rented it to someone before you got here."
They might also strongly suggest that another apartment building would be
better. These people can be very deceptive.
Still another form of discrimination comes into play with
the American Disability Act. This act guarantees that every person with a
disability will get a fair chance to live a normal life. Unfortunately, this
is not always the case. When a landlord refuses to install a ramp, or
handrails, or any of a number of other tools that grant easier access to
handicapped people, that is a form of discrimination.
As you can see, the United States still has a problem with
discrimination, and unfortunately, the problems with housing are only a small
part of the bigger problem. But if we work together in our own communities, we
can help to end discrimination and realize the dream of our forefathers that
all men are created equal."
Karissa Krovance
St. Cecilia
Second Place Winner
Amanda Burnett
St. Cecilia
First Place Winner
Essay
Cortney Franks
Omaha South High
Second Place Winner
"During the Civil Rights Movement, people began to
unite and stand up against the malicious injustice, and, as a result, the Fair
Housing Act was established. This act prohibits discrimination in the sale,
lease or rental of housing, or making housing contrarily unavailable because
of color, race, national origin, sex, religion, familial status or handicap.
This act became a building block in history, which brings us one step closer
to equality. Even though I have seen discrimination of all kinds in my own
life, I'm confident that mine and everybody else's rights will be
protected."
Essay
Kendra Schroer
St. Cecilia High
Third Place Winner
"Many big cities have a problem with housing. There
are many homeless people who are unable to find shelter, or many large
families who have houses, but there is not enough space for all of them. It is
hard for large families to find houses that fit all of their needs. We can
help by building more large homes that are affordable for low income families.
Many that have not been taken care of properly are very dangerous to live in.
Some old houses have lead in them that is very poisonous. Children often play
around the house and get lead poisoning from it. If the neighbors all came
together to help families fix up their houses to make them safe, that would be
one less problem and it could even save a life."
Essay
Kendra Schroer
St. Cecilia High
Third Place Winner
"We do not make goals in life to eat the worst foods
possible, hate all of our friends and family members, work in low paying jobs,
or live in the most decrepit homes on the block. A leaky roof, one broken
window, a rusted furnace, high monthly payments, and prejudiced neighbors are
not included in our expectations of a new home. Sometimes, however, those few
defects are all it takes for a home to be sold cheaply to those with lower
incomes by the real estate business. This not only destroys the value of the
community and the family's reputation, but it can also be harmful to both the
physical and mental health of the home's occupants.
Many people with low and moderately low salaries are only
able to afford houses which are in poor condition. Broken stairs can cause
broken bones; old, decayed furnaces can start fires; poor air circulation can
cause asthma problems; and lead-base paints in older homes may affect internal
organs. Nevertheless, people with low earnings have no other choice but to buy
the cheap homes which could damage their health and their children's.
Furthermore, the House of Representatives recently repealed the Housing Act of
1937 which allowed for housing payments to be no more than thirty percent of a
person's income for rent. In other words, state and local housing authorities
now have more authority to raise rents and mortgage payments without a thought
to those who will be affected by it. This is unjust and should be challenged
because some people are only able to earn low salaries from their jobs. Many
things can cause this such as being disabled, uneducated, or unable to find
jobs that will provide higher incomes.
Secondly, old and neglected houses should be torn down, and
cheaper, efficient ones should be built in their place. This insures equal
opportunity for both the rich and the poor as well as eliminates the misuse of
decayed homes for quick money at the health cost of the buyer.
Neighbors can be great assets when one is in need of an
extra hand with the yard work, a quick loan of a tool, or a simple smile and
hello. However, segregation and biased ideas stop people not only from living
in the homes of their choice, but from the destination and area that they wish
to live in as well. The 14th Amendment has insured that we all
deserve equal opportunity in every situation no matter what race, sex, color,
or religion we are. All of us have the right to live where we want, in the
neighborhood and house of our choice, without having to be worried that the
real estate agent might discriminate against us. Nevertheless, until we as
individuals begin to see this with our hearts and minds, we will not take
action in our own lives to stop segregation, especially in the areas of
housing issues. We need to take action in our own lives to stop prejudiced
acts which could affect the values of our children and those around us.
Housing encompasses a large part or our lives. We eat,
drink, sleep, socialize, and grow as human beings in our homes. Our housing
needs to provide a safe environment without dangerous deterioration which
could threaten our health. We all want the freedom to live in a well-kept,
inexpensive home in the area of our choice. Furthermore, we need to realize
that the people around us wish for similar freedoms, and therefore, they
should receive the same equal opportunities to make their dreams come true.
Housing should not be a barrier that divides the rich from
the poor, one race or religion from another. Instead, it should be an issue
that brings people together to learn new things, enjoy life together, and
experience new friendships and ideas."
 |
and the laws, need your help. It
has to be "Compliance, not complacency." Come to a
Public Forum and find out why this is true for YOU. |
Misty McDowell
St. Cecelia
Third Place Winner
Essay
Wandalee Reyes
Omaha South High
Third Place Winner
"Society today depends on a safe and secure
environment. Laws are enforced to prevent chaos from rising, and we are
obliged to abide by those laws. Our government, the leader of political and
financial activities, controls this system of life. However, problems
concerning housing for citizens in the United States are becoming more
evident. Moreover, in communities nationwide, families are undergoing
conflicts regarding affordable housings, hazardous materials in homes, and the
lack of housing for disabled individuals.
In my personal experience, my mother went through many
hardships trying to pay rent for our apartment two years ago in New Jersey.
The economic status rose greatly as businesses expanded, and there was great
demand for workers. In addition, landlords of apartment complexes trying to
keep up with the fast-paced city, raised their rents to gain more profit.
Families, immigrating from all over the country, found difficulties in
affording these apartments, let alone homes. Unfortunately, they would then
have to seek the option of going on welfare to survive. Witnessing these
experiences was not easy, because I believe families have a natural right to
reside in a stable environment without having to sacrifice so much of their
time in working to pay the rent. To reduce the amount of stress families
undergo, they should seek assistance from local centers who specialize in
housing dilemmas. Sadly, there are limited places where families can seek such
help. On the other hand, our voices must be heard."
Department of Justice News
Department of Justice files against
Justice of the Peace
This article was released May 12,
2000
The Department of Justice today filed suit against the
Harris County, Texas Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4, Position 1, for the
sexual harassment of black female employees in his office based on their race
and sex.
According to the United States’ complaint, filed in U.S.
District Court for the southern District of Texas, H.N. McElroy, in his
official capacity as a Harris County Justice of the Peace, subjected Pearlene
Evans, a former black female employee, and other black females, to sexual
harassment that adversely affected the terms, conditions and privileges of
their employment. The complaint further alleges that Ms. Evans was later
discharged by McElroy on the basis of her race and sex. Because Harris County
is responsible for appropriating monies for McElroy’s office, the County is
named as an additional defendant in the suit.
"All employees are entitled to a workplace free of
hostility based on sex and race," said Bill Lann Lee, Acting Attorney
General for the Civil Rights Division. "Where such harassment is found to
exist, the Justice Department will seek immediate relief, to ensure that such
harassment does not recur, and will seek compensation for the victims."
Ms. Evans filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission in 1997 alleging that, because of her sex
and race, she was sexually harassed by McElroy and forced to resign from her
position as Clerk. After investigating the charge, the EEOC found reasonable
cause to believe that unlawful discrimination had occurred and, when attempts
to conciliate were unsuccessful, referred the matter to the Department of
Justice.
In its complaint, the United States seeks relief and
compensatory damages for Ms. Evans and similarly situated black females for
the mental and physical injuries they have incurred as a result of the alleged
discrimination. The United States is also seeking injunctive relief to prevent
sexual harassment from recurring, including sexual harassment awareness
training for supervisory and non-supervisory personnel in the Harris County
Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4, Position 1 office.
Department of Justice News
Department of Justice Sues on Religion
Discrimination
This article was released May 16, 2000
The Justice department today sued Newark, New Jersey for
allegedly discriminating against police officers on the basis of their Islamic
religion. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, alleges that
the city refused to let Kevin Rhodes, Anthony Kerry and similarly-situated
police officers wear beards in compliance with their religious observance,
practice and belief as Muslims. The complaint also alleges that Rhodes, Kerry
and others were threatened with termination and subjected to other adverse
treatment because of these observances, practices and beliefs.
"The Justice Department is committed to eradicating
religious discrimination in the public employment," said Bill Lann Lee,
Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.
"Employers have a duty to accommodate reasonably the
religious observances, practices and beliefs of employees."
EEOC NEWS
Jimmy Lovato, Denver Denver District Office
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, was interviewed June 8, 2000.
ADR
Everyone is going forward on the ADR program. It is the
bright spot of the year, as was reported to Congress. An outside contractor is
receiving feedback on the ADR, and the current assessment is that ADR is 98%
successful. The Complainants and Respondents are very happy with it.
(Mediation is only done when both parties agree to mediate.) Of the parties
that agree to go through mediation to resolve the complaints, 75-80 percent
are resolved through mediation. Also, the charging parties are receiving a
good chunk of money. In the Fact Finding Conferences (by comparison), the
monetary amount yielded has not been as great as the amount in the mediation
process.
Mediators have been successful because they can discuss
anything they want, yield opinions, and, do not necessarily discuss the facts
of a case. EEOC is going to recommend in the future that the mediators have a
strong background in civil rights law in addition to having experience in the
field.
In Nebraska, when mediation was first introduced under its
current effort, there was a lot of pessimism, but now there is a change of
attitude. Out of the 10-12 mediation cases he has done, only one has failed.
The number of successful mediations is high because people are now respecting
the program. They are happy with the program. He predicts that in the future,
we should expect that larger numbers of persons will select mediation, and
EEOC will eventually budget to hire more mediators.
Problems in ADEA
According to the recent Supreme Court decision, there are
problems of jurisdiction with age cases. The Supreme Court has said that
private parties cannot sue under an age discrimination claim. However, EEOC
has said that if there is a state where the age law is enforced, then there is
no question about jurisdiction. This ruling means that the investigators have
to be more aware of the state law. The charging party can sue under the state
but not the federal government, so EEOC has to work closer with the state.
This will indirectly affect the state’s and EEOC’s handling of a charge.
Title VII
Not much change here. Everyone understands this law, and we
are still using the principles of racial harassment to apply to sexual
harassment. There is now more in-dept investigations by the EEOC, because
there are less cases and a smaller backlog of cases. More thorough
investigations will result in a greater impact on the cause findings, and
uncover evidence that the EEOC previously did not have the resources to look
for. They are now litigating more cases in Nebraska. In one particular case,
the court found that the Respondent was engaged in a willful violation of the
law, which requires a higher standard of proof.
"At some point, you have to face up to your
place in American society. To find out what that place is, you
have to determine how far you can walk out on the plank without feeling
uncomfortable by yourself."
-Arthur Ashe
The Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission welcomes
your input about the NEOC UPDATE. We cannot publish or respond to
queries about particular cases that come before the Commission.
Copyright 2000, NEOC
Newsletter Editor: Gretchen Eure
Investigations Unit Director/Public Education and
Outreach
