United Nations Investigates US Housing
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The following article by Michael Premo was originally published on the New York Times The Local Blog with the title FG/CH Gets U.N. Visit
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing Visits Brooklyn, NY
On Oct. 23, Raquel Rolnik, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, visited Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) to hear residents from Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and the surrounding area testify to the abuses and disparate housing conditions that exist in the neighborhood.
The Brooklyn visit is part of the first official fact-finding mission to the United States by the office of the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing. During her visit Ms. Rolnik will travel to communities across the country, speaking with residents affected by the national housing crisis, highlighting issues of foreclosure, homelessness, public housing and rental assistance.
A U.N. Special Rapporteur is an independent expert appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to observe whether governments are protecting the globally recognized human right to housing, advocating for equitable and sustainable housing policies that protect all people, including the poor, indigenous and displaced persons. Selected for the post in 2008, Ms. Rolnik is also an international consultant for urban and housing policies and professor of urban planning in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Ms. Rolnick began in New York and will visit, Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Washington, as well as the rural communities of Wilkes-Barre, Penn., and the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI), along with the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and local housing groups, are facilitating the visit.
In speaking about the significance of the mission, Tiffany M. Gardner, Program Director of NESRI’s Human Right to Housing Program, explained that, “We are excited about Mrs. Rolnik’s visit because it allows communities that have been struggling for years to find common ground with those who are newly experiencing these housing challenges.”
“Mrs. Rolnik’s U.S. visit is profoundly important because it recognizes that Americans do have a human right to housing and that right is so deeply imperiled that it merits international monitoring at the moment,” Ms. Gardner said.
The U.S. tour kicked off at a town hall meeting, the night before her visit to Fort Greene, with individuals and advocates sharing passionate and sometimes tear-filled testimonies about predatory banking practices, inadequate homeless services and many other immediate concerns. Rob Robinson, board member of Picture the Homeless, coordinated the New York City leg of the tour along with a broad coalition of organizations from across the city. Mr. Robinson helped organize neighborhood site visits, as well as meetings with city and state officials including city council members and city housing agencies.
Crucial to the fact-finding mission are visits to the neighborhoods and even homes of those affected by the housing crisis. At FUREE’s Willoughby Street office, hosted in part by Fifth Avenue Committee, local residents shared first-hand accounts of civil and human rights abuses they are experiencing including landlord harassment, infestations and the use of housing court, and police profiling disproportionately targeting low-income members of the community.
Some residents believe these abuses are tactics designed to drive them from their homes, making way for luxury development. An example FUREE members point to is the demolition of the Associated Supermarket on Myrtle Avenue. Loss of this neighborhood grocery store has had a tremendous impact on the residents of Fort Greene north of Fort Greene Park.
In the multimedia piece at the top of this post, neighborhood residents share their housing conditions with the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing. Ms. Rolnik will present the findings of her mission to the U.N. General Assembly in a public report on the human right to housing in the U.S. Visit restorehousingrights.org for more information on her visit to Fort Greene/Clinton Hill and the entire U.S. mission.
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