University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, October 27, 1987
5
Tuesday Forum
Tenants and prospective buyers often face racial discrimination, sexual harassment or poor management practices. Few know that federal, state and local agencies have been established to protect their rights. The Lawrence Human Relations/Human Resources Department was designed to resolve the grievances of tenants, many of whom are students.
Andy Pavich/KANSAN
Fair housing tenets aid tenants
By ARVILLA B. VICKERS
"Hello, this is Mr. Kinny, and I'm calling about the ad I saw for the apartment on Oak Street. Has it been rented vet?"
"Why, no, what time would you like to see it?"
"Would 2 p.m. be OK?"
"That's fine. I might be just a little late, I have another appointment at 1:30 p.m., but just wait for me on the phone or there." Thanks for calling, Goodbye.
Mr. Kinny arrives at the designated time. No one is there, but since it had been mentioned the owner might be a little late, he was not concerned and proceeded to make himself comfortable on the sidewalk. He then walks several cars drive by, but Mr. Kinny takes no real notice. He does not notice anyone in any of those cars is looking at him.
Mr. Kinny finally leaves after waiting more than 30 minutes. Later that evening, he calls the number in the ad again, inquiring why no one met him. The owner was very pleased with his performance, the previous meeting had lasted twice as long as expected and that there was no way to reach him.
Mr. Kinny said he understood and asked whether they could arrange a new appointment to view the apartment. The owner apologized again and stated that by the time he'd gotten home that evening, his wife already had rented the apartment to someone she had shown to later that afternoon. The new tenants said they needed a place immediately, paid the deposit and rent on the spot and said they'd be moving in the next day.
While apartment-hunting during those ensuing days, however, Mr. Kinny drove by the Oak Street apartment and noted that no curtains were hung, no furniture was visible through the windows and no car was in the driveway. Mr. Kinny realized the apartment never had been rented. Mr. Kinny, an American citizen, also happened to be of a minority race. He was furious and proceeded to contact the local civil rights agency to have the matter investigated to see whether his suspicion that discrimination had taken place was true.
Mr. Kinny was rather upset but said he realized no one could account for bad luck and hung up. Mr. Kinny and his family continued to look for an apartment and eventually found one, but it wasn't in the location they desired so their children had to change schools and the rent cost more for much less apartment space and fewer amenities.
This is an all too familiar scenario for the classic case of race discrimination. The sad thing is, however, that many people never go back and check a property, either by searching for it or not aware they have rights and therefore an avenue through which their suspicions can be investigated
Even if they are suspicious of their treatment, they are often too humiliated to say anything or they do not have the strength to confront the situation and fight for their legal rights. There are many reasons why
and very talkative. They can extract what your religion is very easily by engaging in conversation regarding their own religious affiliation.
Tenants or prospective buyers must arm themselves with information about rights and be willing to ask for help immediately from the
Over and over students will go into a situation where they've been treated terribly only because they didn't have the knowledge to protect themselves.
suspected or overt cases o.
discrimination are never brought
before the property authorities.
However, public education can eliminate many of those possible reasons, and, in turn, help to identify discrimination in our society.
Also, many people associate "civil rights" or "discrimination" with only the classic race discrimination case that local, state and federal law covers. And, sadly, many incidences based on something other than race, do occur.
One such case is sexual harassment or discrimination. Men are sometimes harrassed or they are denied housing from persons whose intent is to rent to as many women as possible, and that is for their illegal behavior. But it is often females, and most often single females, who face such problems.
to see, if possible, whether they are right or wrong.
These are only a few of the many possibilities of how such problems could begin and continue, and too many times women do not know how to put a stop to the problem through their legal rights. They will be a victim or move rather than confront the victim.
In housing, it can be very subtle or overt. A woman moves into a rental unit and finds she has "excellent service" from the manager or owner. The only problem is he'll fix things that she didn't ask to have fixed and will appear in her apartment without the required proper notice or at a cost. She must be very proficient. Personal subjects are introduced by that manager when it is not called for and perhaps an actual sexual advance will be made.
Students also can be the victims of illegal discrimination or general exploitive bad treatment in a rental situation. It is true that students or anyone else as a tenant can be the cause of problems. But over and over again, students will go into and out of the building and they are treated terribly only because they didn't have the proper experience or knowledge with which to protect themselves from illegal discrimination or general bad treatment.
During the application process in renting, an applicant can divulge personal information that is illegal to obtain. If a potential owner or manager sees "so nice"
various agencies set up to assist them, such as the Lawrence Human Relations/Human Resources Department. Consumer Affairs or Legal damage is done before an issue is ever brought to a helping hand.
An excellent way to practice preventive maintenance is for high schools and universities to work with agencies to distribute needed information to incoming students ahead of time so that they can avoid some of the pitfalls. Students who live off campus also should join the tenant organization that recently has been formed in Lawrence.
"Fair Housing" or "Equal Housing Opportunity" refers to our lawful right to equal opportunity in rental,
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sale, purchase or occupancy of property. The Federal Fair Housing Law and Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 gives us this right. Most states include a statute, including Kansas, to protect one's right to equal housing opportunity. And, many cities nationwide have responded to the necessity for a local ordinance, such as Ordinance 5436 of the Code of Lawrence, Kan., which has eight bases: age, ancestry, color, handicap, national origin, race, religion and sex. Our local law provides an administrative procedure, as opposed to a judicial one, through which an impartial third party can investigate allegations of discrimination brought before the law's enforcement agency in the area of housing, employment and public accommodation. This procedure is carried out for the City of Lawrence by the executive director and staff of the Lawrence Human Relations/Human Resources Department, Suite 315 of City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets. The LHRD also gives away a free, 150-page fair housing booklet, which includes copies of the pertinent laws regarding housing plus other related information.
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Arvilla B. Vickers is a human relations specialist and housing manager for the Fair Housing Assistance Program, a service of the City of Lawrence.
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