Why gentrification is a fair housing issue

11/17/2018

Ninety years after Austin’s first comprehensive plan designated a “negro district”—and fifty years after the first attempt to pass a local fair housing ordinance was overturned by popular referendum -- there are still sharp differences in the quality of life across neighborhoods. Read the commentary here.

1 Comment

Sara

12/2/2018 11:36:11 pm

When I tried to switch electric service to my name in Hyde Park in 2008, I was delayed by Austin Energy. It took about 20 days for the City of Austin to provide me service. Half of this time, the service was off at my apartment. This was during a hot Austin summer. I lost all the food in my fridge due to the lack of electricity.

When I went to the COA office a black employee told me that the COA was investigating my SSN number. That was causing the delay. I saw a long line of undoc immigrants waiting at the service window and asked about them. The COA employee told me they had to show their lease and Mexican ID to get electric. Then, they would have service in about three days. I would have liked service in three days. However, I was not given the option to show my lease and Texas ID. There was a higher standard for me a black Austin resident to receive COA service. Higher standard for me-an American.

When you add that to how blacks in this city are targeted by police for bogus charges and arrests, you see that the 1928 Plan has been revised to limit only the access of Austin's black residents thru official oppression and public corruption.

Why gentrification is a fair housing issue

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