UN Rapporteur: US Housing worst for Lakotas and Immigrants

By Brenda Norrell

While the United States spent $1 trillion on military spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US ignored abysmal housing for Lakotas in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Immigrants in California were found living in similar overcrowded housing, during a visit by Raquel Rolnik, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing.

Overcrowding in housing on Pine Ridge was described as the worst in the report being released in Geneva on Friday. The lack of fresh food and the lack of public transportation was also included in the report on Pine Ridge, where Lakota have suffered during recent winter storms.

"During the mission, the Special Rapporteur observed many families living in subsidized housing units in conditions of severe overcrowding. This was particularly the case amongst immigrant families in Los Angeles, and most strikingly on Pine Ridge Native American Reservation, where it was described as commonplace to have three to four families living in a three-bedroom house. The conditions in the houses on the Reservation were the worst seen by the Special Rapporteur during her mission, evidence of the urgent and severe need for additional subsidized housing units there," states the report.

As part of the current session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday, March 5, Rolnik will issue the report and recommendations to the US.

The Special Rapporteur's final recommendations to the U.S. government include, but are not limited to, the following:

· Imposing a moratorium on the demolition and disposition of public housing until one-for-one replacement can be guaranteed;

· Including the Right to First Purchase for Section 8 buildings in the Preservation Bill;

· Extending the Protecting Tenants At Foreclosure Act beyond 2012;

· Developing alternatives to the criminalization of the homeless, e.g., where adequate shelter is not available, allowing homeless persons to shelter themselves in public areas;

· Ensuring that poor communities are not displaced as development takes place, with respect to the Choice Neighborhoods program; and

· Making empty and foreclosed properties available for sale to non-profit organizations and community land trusts.

In commenting on the significance of the final report, Tiffany M. Gardner, Director of NESRI's Human Right to Housing Program, stated: "The Special Rapporteur's final report highlights the myriad of housing issues local and community groups have been trying to highlight to government officials for many years. Hopefully this international attention will inspire meaningful dialogue towards workable solutions between our government and those communities that are directly impacted by these issues."

Since the visit, national advocacy around these issues has continued. For example, NESRI and community partners across the country are producing a documentary on the U.S. mission. A trailer of the documentary, which will be previewed tomorrow at the UN in Geneva, will highlight the site visits conducted by the Special Rapporteur during the mission and will underscore the work of local community groups in combating the housing crisis and building the national human right to housing movement.

Reflecting on the ongoing impact of the mission, Becky Dennison from Los Angeles Community Action Network explained: "Most organizations and members who planned and participated in the Special Rapporteur's visit continue to work together to promote and demand the right to housing in Los Angeles. In December 2009, on International Human Rights Day, more than 250 residents that were truly reflective of multi-cultural Los Angeles took to the streets to bring light to domestic human rights violations."

View a link to Special Rapporteur's official final report at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/13session/A.HRC.13.20.ADD.4_AEV.pdf

View a short video statement by the Special Rapporteur at the conclusion of her US mission in November 2009 at http://www.vimeo.com/9920589