University Daily Kansan
Friday, Sept. 4, 1970 7
Tenant Unification Attempt
Housing Survey To Begin
Saturday will mark the beginning of canvassing by the Lawrence Tenants Union in an effort to organize and unify Lawrence tenants, both students and blacks, against high rents and unfair housing practices.
Mrs. Maureen Hollis, St. Louis sophomore and one of the tenants union's organizers, said Thursday that 10 persons will canvass in pairs in the area bounded by 9th, 14th, Oread and Kentucky streets.
The tenants interviewed will be asked to fill out questionnaires concerning housing conditions and rent levels.
The Lawrence Tenants Union was started a year ago by several KU students who had observed the operation of successful tenants unions in Berkeley, Calif.,
and Ann Arbor, Mich.
"The tenants union was formed because adequate, reasonably priced housing is the right of all citizens, and people are just not getting their rights in this town," said Mrs. Hollis. She cited a number of specific locations where slum housing and high prices exist, many of these allegedly owned by a University of Kansas professor.
According to Mrs. Hollis, organization will be difficult due to territorial fragmentation of student housing.
"Right now we're just getting into the ground work, information gathering and organization," she said. "I don't want to sound pessimistic, but it will probably
be spring before we take any action."
After the tenants union obtains a greater degree of organization, it plans to petition the University to remove certain locations of deficient housing from its list of approved housing.
The Lawrence public housing commissioner has expressed a desire to serve notice on Lawrence "slum lords," said Mrs. Hollis, but he cannot do so without evicting the residents of the buildings in question. For this reason, the Lawrence Tenants Union plans to try to find Lawrence residents who will rent living space to tenants now housed in insufficient living conditions.
Students Eligible for Aid
Many KU students are eligible for food stamps under existing regulations, as spelled out in publications distributed by the Kansas State Board of Social Welfare.
Such assistance is not available for non-residents of Kansas.
Other welfare programs are affected by student status. The regulation requiring persons receiving general assistance to be signed up with an employment agency and making an effort to locate a job disqualifies students, according to William Nesbit, case supervisor in the Douglas County Welfare Office.
However, need based on the size of the family and the income
is the primary consideration in granting food stamps. Many KU students would be eligible under current regulations, providing they have cooking facilities and their monthly income does not exceed the maximum amount for food stamps.
For example, a KU graduate assistant making $2,000 a year would probably receive about $210 a month in take home pay. If he has a wife and two children, his total income requirement under Douglas County regulations would be $249. The student would be entitled to purchase $106 worth of food stamps for $60.
The federal government has a provision enabling counties to
sell their food stamps at half price during the first year of operation in that county. Douglas County instituted the program last May, so until next April the student could buy the stamps for $30.
Nesbit said the aid to dependent children program had a few KU students on its roster. Some students might also be eligible for medical care benefits, he said.
The two primary requirements are resources and residency. Residency is determined by the welfare board on the basis of where the applicant votes, buys car tags, banks, pays taxes and spends most of his time.
Grad Tests Planned
Foreign language tests for graduate students will be given Oct. 10, Andrew Torres, assistant dean of the Graduate School, announced Thursday. The deadline for registration without penalty is Sept. 16, he said.
The tests are used to satisfy the foreign language reading requirements of many departments at KU. They will be offered in humanities, social sciences and natural sciences with options in French, German, Russian and Spanish.
He added that A and B courses, in German, Latin and Russian (which require only that the student be able to translate the language); and the A course in French, Italian and Spanish still will be available as a method of satisfying the foreign language requirement.
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Phone 843-3711
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