How the Federal government has come to micro manage everything
County agrees to promote housing to ethnic, racial minorities
Agreement tied to federal funding
By Anna McCarthy
Marinscope Newspapers
Marin County officials have voluntarily agreed to better promote housing resources to ethnic and racial minorities, low-income and disabled people after a recent federal review showed the county to be out of compliance with several discrimination provisions in allocating federal funding for housing. The agreement requires the county to better track exactly who benefits from the roughly $3 million U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant and HOME funds it sees annually.
“This agreement increases Marin’s accountability to its residents and to HUD to carry out its Fair Housing obligations and document that its programs serve everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, or disability,” said HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity John Trasviña in a prepared statement.
In the review HUD conducted in July 2009, investigators found the county did not sufficiently encourage participation from the public, specifically under-represented members of the public, during planning processes for housing projects that used federal funding. In addition, the review alleges the county did not adequately keep records of the characteristics of the people (racial, ethnic, gender, disabilities, etc.) benefiting from the federally funded housing programs. Because of this, the county has no way of knowing who is benefiting from the public service, or whether any one group is under- or over-represented, according to the review. The review also cited specific issues with the county’s efforts at the integration of its racial and ethnic diversity throughout the county.
“[T]he county demonstrated virtually no actions (other than funding to a fair housing agency) to analyze or address the historic patterns of segregation of Blacks in Marin City, or Hispanics and some Asian groups in the San Rafael Canal Area through affirmative marketing by its sub-recipients or partners in the development of affordable housing,” reads the report.
Marin County is by far the least racially and ethnically diverse of the nine Bay Area counties, with minority households making up less than 20 percent of the total number of households in the county.
HUD assured the county that it had not found “serous violations” in Marin, but said it wanted to be sure Marin County doesn’t turn into “another Westchester.” A nonprofit group sued Westchester County, which is north of New York City, alleging that the county lied when it filed applications for CDBG and HOME funds and committed fraud every time it drew funds without fulfilling requirements to further fair housing in the county. Westchester County agreed to pay over $50 million in a seven-year period to create affordable housing targeted at minority populations.
Under the terms of a Voluntary Compliance Agreement, the county has promised to work together with agencies and private developers to ensure that affordable housing development opportunities will be marketed to low-income minority and disabled people, to conduct a study to identify and overcome fair-housing barriers, to create an outreach plan so that the views of low-income residents are included in public meetings, and to develop a language assistance plan for non-English speakers so they can learn about and participate in affordable-housing programs and public service activities.
Marin County Community Development Coordinator Roy Bateman said much of the problem cited in the review was “paperwork issues” having to do with demographics reports. To address these problems, Bateman said the county plans to do as much as it can with what it has, and cited a tight budget and recent budget cuts as challenges to fulfilling some of these requirements. Bateman’s office recently dropped from three to two and a half employees.
Bateman wrote in a letter to the Marin Board of Supervisors that Marin and Westchester, although both affluent and mostly white counties, are significantly different in that some of the largest subsidized housing projects in Marin are located in communities like Mill Valley and Tiburon, contributing significantly to integration.
Also, the county had already commissioned an updated report analyzing impediments to affordable housing in the county from Fair Housing of Marin last spring, he said.
However, Kenyon said there are plenty of barriers Bateman’s office faces to increase diversity in the county. She said they are aware of the problems that need to be overcome, and are continuing their hard work to do so. One of the more frequent impediments to affordable-housing projects are neighborhood residents touting affordable housing, but refusing to support affordable-housing projects in their neighborhoods. “Cumulatively, what that does is stop a lot of affordable-housing projects,” she said.
Kenyon said the Marin Community Housing Action Initiative, in partnership with the Marin Community Foundation, is helping to overcome this barrier
“This agreement increases Marin’s accountability to its residents and to HUD to carry out its Fair Housing obligations and document that its programs serve everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, or disability,” said HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity John Trasviña in a prepared statement.
In the review HUD conducted in July 2009, investigators found the county did not sufficiently encourage participation from the public, specifically under-represented members of the public, during planning processes for housing projects that used federal funding. In addition, the review alleges the county did not adequately keep records of the characteristics of the people (racial, ethnic, gender, disabilities, etc.) benefiting from the federally funded housing programs. Because of this, the county has no way of knowing who is benefiting from the public service, or whether any one group is under- or over-represented, according to the review. The review also cited specific issues with the county’s efforts at the integration of its racial and ethnic diversity throughout the county.
“[T]he county demonstrated virtually no actions (other than funding to a fair housing agency) to analyze or address the historic patterns of segregation of Blacks in Marin City, or Hispanics and some Asian groups in the San Rafael Canal Area through affirmative marketing by its sub-recipients or partners in the development of affordable housing,” reads the report.
Marin County is by far the least racially and ethnically diverse of the nine Bay Area counties, with minority households making up less than 20 percent of the total number of households in the county.
HUD assured the county that it had not found “serous violations” in Marin, but said it wanted to be sure Marin County doesn’t turn into “another Westchester.” A nonprofit group sued Westchester County, which is north of New York City, alleging that the county lied when it filed applications for CDBG and HOME funds and committed fraud every time it drew funds without fulfilling requirements to further fair housing in the county. Westchester County agreed to pay over $50 million in a seven-year period to create affordable housing targeted at minority populations.
Under the terms of a Voluntary Compliance Agreement, the county has promised to work together with agencies and private developers to ensure that affordable housing development opportunities will be marketed to low-income minority and disabled people, to conduct a study to identify and overcome fair-housing barriers, to create an outreach plan so that the views of low-income residents are included in public meetings, and to develop a language assistance plan for non-English speakers so they can learn about and participate in affordable-housing programs and public service activities.
Marin County Community Development Coordinator Roy Bateman said much of the problem cited in the review was “paperwork issues” having to do with demographics reports. To address these problems, Bateman said the county plans to do as much as it can with what it has, and cited a tight budget and recent budget cuts as challenges to fulfilling some of these requirements. Bateman’s office recently dropped from three to two and a half employees.
Bateman wrote in a letter to the Marin Board of Supervisors that Marin and Westchester, although both affluent and mostly white counties, are significantly different in that some of the largest subsidized housing projects in Marin are located in communities like Mill Valley and Tiburon, contributing significantly to integration.
Also, the county had already commissioned an updated report analyzing impediments to affordable housing in the county from Fair Housing of Marin last spring, he said.
However, Kenyon said there are plenty of barriers Bateman’s office faces to increase diversity in the county. She said they are aware of the problems that need to be overcome, and are continuing their hard work to do so. One of the more frequent impediments to affordable-housing projects are neighborhood residents touting affordable housing, but refusing to support affordable-housing projects in their neighborhoods. “Cumulatively, what that does is stop a lot of affordable-housing projects,” she said.
Kenyon said the Marin Community Housing Action Initiative, in partnership with the Marin Community Foundation, is helping to overcome this barrier
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