Housing becomes main topic of human rights meeting

John Cannon The Independent

ASHLAND — Housing has easily been the source of the majority of discrimination complaints received by the Ashland Human Rights Commission in its almost 35 years of existence. It continues to be a mostly unresolved problem in the city, members of the commission said during a Tuesday evening meeting at Christ Temple Church that was part of a “listening tour” being conducted by the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights as part of its 50th anniversary.

“Ashland city officials do not want to get involved in disputes between landlords and tenants,” said Carol Jackson, chairwoman of the local human rights commission. “You can bring an issue to their attention, but they don’t want to get involved. Therefore, the problem gets ignored without resolution.”

Jackson said there have been examples of landlords intentionally cutting off the water or electricity to houses to force the tenant out. Such acts are against the law and clear examples of discrimination, but city officials look the other way, she said.

“We have good landlords in this city,” said Jackson, “but we also have a few landlords from hell. Those are the ones we have problems with.”

The human rights commission has tried to work with both landlords and tenants but with little success, Jackson said. “We’ve had training sessions for landlords, but no one shows up,” she said. “We’ve had training sessions on tenant rights, but no one shows up.”

If housing discrimination is occurring, John C.K. Fisher, northern Kentucky field supervisor for the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, said the commission has the power to bring legal action against the landlord, and that has been done in other Kentucky communities. “That’s one of your options,” he told those attending the listening session.

“But I don’t want to take people to court,” said Jackson, “I just want to get them together to discuss the issue. If we can bring people to the table, I think most court actions will be unnecessary because the dispute will be resolved before it gets that far.”

Many landlords in Ashland are against having leases, said Bernice Henry, vice chairwoman of the local rights commission. That’s because they think it is easier to evict people if they don’t have a lease, she said. She said there was one landlord in Ashland who began eviction proceedings when tenants were only a day late with their rent.

Jackson said her advice to tenants is to insist on a lease, to take pictures of every room and the exterior of the home before moving in and to do a walk through with the landlord. Too many tenants do none of those things, she said.

Henry said the human rights commission offered a training session on fair housing laws in April 2009, but the response from both landlords and tenants was nearly nonexistent.

“If it doesn’t directly affect you, why should you care?” asked Jackson. “But if you live in a neighborhood where discrimination is occurring, it does affect you whether you think it does or not.”

 Sylvia McClelland-Morrison, a 14-year resident of east Ashland, said she felt her neighborhood was being discriminated by how the city of Ashland has been using rehabilitation funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

 She said the section of the city east of Ninth Street and between Winchester and Central avenues is one of two areas targeted for rehabilitation but to date, “almost all the money has gone to the Pollard area, which is really a middle class neighborhood, while our neighborhood has been ignored.” Other than the construction of a linear park where the railroad tracks used to be, east Ashland has gotten nothing, she said.

“To me, that’s unfair,” said McClelland-Morrison. “I think we are being intentionally ignored.”

Ashland City Commissioner Cheryl Spriggs, the only elected official attending the meeting, said money continues to be earmarked for east Ashland. “We have not forgotten that area,” she said. “We are just a little further along in Pollard. We have every intention of doing more in east Ashland.”

“I’ve been hearing that for at least 10 years,” said “McClelland-Morrison, “but so far all we have gotten is a little park. We want to see more being done.”

 Spriggs called the meeting a real learning experience for her. “I am hearing about things I didn’t know existed in Ashland,” said Spriggs, who is seeking the 100th District seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives instead of seeking another term on the city commission.  “This has been a real eye-opener for me.”

JOHN CANNON can be reached at cannon@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2649.

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