Cedar Creek, Texas September 2, 2005 - The Cedar Creek Sangha site is password protected for our friends only.

Zoning Restrictions Struck Down The 35-year-old  density restrictions of Sunnyvale, TX, a 2,000 resident Dallas-area town, has been struck down on federal civil rights grounds. An August ruling by the Northern District Court of Texas found that the one residential unit per acre zoning requirements  had a racially discriminatory effect. Plaintiffs included a Dallas tenant counselor, a construction firm that was denied permission to build a multifamily development and a fair housing organization. (Housing Law Bulletin, September 2005)

Clearly, density restrictions violate Federal Civil Rights Laws and constitute discrimination against blacks, Hispanics, poor people and other minorities who have large families.  Wealthy people tend to have small families, poor people tend to have large families.

Subdivision density restrictions are a white racist device to allow affluent, high income whites in to subdivisions.   A household in Bastrop, Texas had to turn away victims of Hurricane Katrina who had large families seeking shelter because of the neighborhoods oppressive, and most likely illegal, density restrictions. 

Texas Apartment Association Urges Members to Assist Hurricane Katrina Victims

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 2, 2005--The Texas Apartment Association (TAA) is encouraging its members to work cooperatively with local authorities and support relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

"Our first priority during this time of devastating loss must be to assist our fellow citizens who have been forced to leave their homes," said Brad Williams, CPM, TAA President. "Our members are in the business of providing homes, and we are encouraging them to open their doors to those who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina."

"TAA is encouraging its members to respond sensitively and compassionately to this disaster," said George B. Allen, CAE, TAA Executive Vice President. "We are encouraging members to offer short-term leases, and to consider waiving application fees and various move-in fees when possible."

Allen noted that some TAA members are offering free or reduced rent to evacuees to help them through the immediate crisis. TAA is also asking members to work with local relief agencies and organizations, and to register their available apartment units with a national database being coordinated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA).

"This is an ongoing situation and new questions and issues will emerge," he added. "One thing we are emphasizing with our members is that Texas law prohibits charging excessive or exorbitant fees for certain life necessities, including housing, following a disaster," Allen said. "Katrina evacuees should be charged the same or lesser rent than was charged for a comparable lease term in a comparable unit before the disaster."

TAA has joined the National Apartment Association in encouraging members with available rental units, particularly east of Interstate 35 in Texas, to contact DHS with information about these units. DHS is creating a clearinghouse of information that can be shared with those in need of both short- and long-term housing.

Property owners with rental units available to rent to evacuees should register their available units through the National Emergency Resource Registry at www.swern.gov. (Click on the "List Resources" link to register as a new user on the site.) More information about what to include in the registry is available on the TAA website at http://www.taa.org/newsAndInfo/home.php.

TAA is also encouraging members to support disaster relief by contributing to the American Red Cross. Members may also be organizing collection efforts at properties for donation of money or items for Katrina victims.

"We've heard from lots of companies and individual members who are organizing donation efforts and doing what they can to offer assistance," Allen said.

TAA also has useful information for residents on its website at www.taa.org in the "Resources for Renters" section. Information for Katrina evacuees can be found by clicking on "Help for Hurricane Victims" in this section.

The Texas Apartment Association is a trade association representing rental housing owners, managers, and companies that supply services to the rental housing industry. The Austin-based association has more than 10,000 members who own or manage nearly 1.6 million rental housing units in Texas. TAA has 25 local affiliated associations in markets around the state.

National Housing Institute
460 Bloomfield Avenue, Suite 211
Montclair, NJ 07042-3552
973-509-2888
973-509-8005 (fax)

 "The largest displacement of Americans since the Civil War
reverberated across the country from its starting point in
New Orleans yesterday, as more than half a million people
uprooted by Hurricane Katrina sought shelter, sustenance
and the semblance of new lives.

"Katrina has scattered more than twice as many people as
the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and unmoored more
people in a few days than fled the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.
Estimating from census data, about 150,000 of the displaced
lived below the poverty line even before they lost
everything. Far more than 50,000 of them are past
retirement age.

"More than 300,000 Japanese were left homeless by the Kobe
earthquake in 1995 and some were still in makeshift camps
three years later. Closer to home, the sudden influx
of125,000 Cubans in the 1980 Mariel boatlift was only
partially absorbed by families and volunteers across the
country; some of the refugees remained in camps into the
late 1980s.

From:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/washpost/20050902/ts_washpost/displacement_of_historic_proportions