ChuckE Law - Community Lawyering in Miami

My wife and I worked hard on the midterm election in Broward.  I had several thoughts which I wanted to record solely based on my very limited experience.  My wife did canvassing for many days.  She would come home after spending many, many hours and state that she only actually talked to maybe two or three people.  People were not home or did not answer the door.  So all she could do is leave literature.   Many building had secure access which prohibited any unauthorized entry.  In these buildings it isn't even possible to leave literature.  At the same time I was texting.  I started out texting everyone on my contacts list - about 1500 people, as well as people on some other lists I had developed.  I then started using the app provided by the party which simply provided the name and message. I then added my name and it automatically texted.  You could easily text fifty at a time.  Each time I would send a bunch of texts ...

After a number of years of silence, and my retiring, the ChuckE Law Blog is back - to post any thoughts or ideas that are running through my head, research I am engaged in, or reading I have done.

In the session that just ended, the Florida legislature passed one of the most anti-tenant bills that has come before it in the last decade, allowing landlords to accept   partial payments of rent   after starting the eviction process and to cure any faulty notices in the middle of the eviction proceeding.    That it passed is not all that remarkable.    The legislature passed a host of anti-working people and homeowner bills, outlawing local sick leave ordinances, refusing to expand Medicaid, and expediting foreclosures on homeowners.    What is most remarkable is how little opposition there was. While the bills targeting workers and home owners had hosts of labor, homeowner   and community organizations educating the legislators, the anti-tenant bill passed silently with no more opposition than a few public interest tenant lawyers.   Why is it in Florida, where so many groups are now recognizing the importance of organizing to...

Good article in the Sunday NY Times on the demolition of public housing in Atlanta. Begins with praise by Renee Glover but then gives good coverage to critics. Over the past 15 years, Atlanta has bulldozed about 15,000 units, spread across 32 housing projects, some of which once contained as many as 2,500 residents. . . . Critics of the demolitions worry about the toll on residents, who must qualify for vouchers, struggle to find affordable housing and often move to only slightly less impoverished neighborhoods. Especially in a troubled economy, civil rights groups say, uprooting can lead to homelessness if more low-income housing is not made available. Lawsuits have been filed in many other cities, generally without success, that claim that similar relocations violate residents’ civil rights and resegregate the poor. . . Over all, 195,000 public housing units have met the wrecking ball across the country since 2006, and over 230,000 more units are scheduled for demolition,...

From the National Low Income Housing Coalition Memo to Members June 19, 2009 House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank (D-MA) and Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA) wrote to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan on June 15 asking that HUD issue a one-year moratorium on the demolition or disposition of public housing units. In the letter, Mr. Frank and Ms. Waters note that 120,000 units of public housing have been lost within the last 10 years, and that public housing is being lost at a faster rate than it is being replaced. This loss effectively exacerbates the “affordable housing needs of our most vulnerable populations,” the letter states, and forces families to live in increasingly substandard living conditions. Mr. Frank and Ms. Waters underscore the idea that preservation of pre-existing affordable housing units is essential because other affordable housing mechanisms, including housing vouchers, will not be useful if ther...

The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity held a hearing on June 4 on its draft Section 8 Voucher Reform Act (SEVRA). Subcommittee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA) is expected to introduce the bill in coming weeks. The draft bill includes many provisions widely supported by housing advocates: an authorization of 150,000 new vouchers; rent simplification provisions, which would allow housing agencies to recertify the incomes of people on fixed incomes every three years instead of annually, as is now the case and would allow housing agencies to use income verified by other federal programs; new rent provisions are also intended to encourage residents to increase their earned income; increases in voucher holders’ ability to live in neighborhoods of their choosing; protections for tenants in other federally subsidized properties who are at risk of losing their assistance; expansion of housing agencies’ ability to project-base vouchers. Several organizatio...