A sample survey on housing discrimination in Iowa City was completed this fall to determine if recent changes in the fair-housing law have helped users of Housing Choice Vouchers.
By Molly Hunter
The city of Iowa City is buckling down on public education about housing discrimination following the results from a housing-equity sample survey conducted this fall.
The Iowa City Human Rights Office recently completed a sample survey in Iowa City to determine if and how residents using Housing Choice Vouchers are being discriminated against in housing options.
The survey comes after changes to the city’s fair-housing ordinance were made in June, extending protection to its 826 voucher-users and looked at whether these changes have had any immediate effect on housing equity.
A more comprehensive study of housing equity in Iowa City was performed in 2014 by the University of Iowa Public Policy Center.
The 2014 survey, Impediments to Fair Housing Choice, sent 820 voucher-users forms asking if they had experienced housing discrimination since 2011.
Of the 210 who responded, 21 percent said they had experienced housing discrimination, 31 percent of those people reported facing discrimination based on their use of a voucher, 28 percent cited other forms of public assistance as the source, and 27 percent said they were discriminated against because of their ethnicity, national origin, or skin color.
Before 2014, discrimination against tenants based on their use of Housing Choice Vouchers was not illegal in Iowa City.
City Equity Director Stefanie Bowers said that partly as a result of the 2014 study, the city amended its fair-housing ordinance to protect those using vouchers and other rental subsidies. Housing discrimination based solely on the use of these forms of public assistance is now illegal in Iowa City.
However, according to Neighborhood Services Coordinator Tracy Hightshoe, this year’s sample survey found discrimination due to use of vouchers is still an issue.
“People — even if they’ve been discriminated against for any reason — they don’t file a complaint, either because they don’t know how, or why bother, or they don’t want to get in trouble with the landlord,” Hightshoe said.
When instances of housing discrimination go unreported, she said, it is difficult for the city to enforce its codes and regulations. In response to the 2016 results, the city plans to raise awareness about housing discrimination in Iowa City.
“It tells us that we need to do more outreach and education so that people are not only aware of their rights, but they’re aware of our office and of what we do,” Bowers said. “And we also have to collaborate with other organizations and social-service agencies and dispel the notion that reporting [discrimination] doesn’t do anything.”
An email from the city about the sample survey included a set of actions plans recommended by the Human Rights Office. According to the email, the Human Rights Office intends to collaborate with the Housing Authority and other local organizations to perform outreach to the public, particularly voucher-users.
The goal of these outreach efforts will be to increase awareness and education about reporting housing discrimination, as well as Iowa City’s fair-housing ordinance. In addition, voucher-users will be able to submit housing-discrimination complaints online beginning in 2017.
“If people are denied only on the basis of having a voucher, people are encouraged to contact the Human Rights Office,” Hightshoe said.
Once the complaint is received, Hightshoe said, the Human Rights Office begins an investigation, which is performed at no charge.
But housing equity does not stop there. For Stan Laverman, a city senior housing inspector, it goes much deeper than voucher discrimination.
“There are certain areas that you know this is affordable housing, but at the same time, it needs to meet the same standards as other housing in the community,” Laverman said.
From an inspection standpoint, he said, housing equity is achieved by not operating on a sliding scale.
“For example, you wouldn’t tolerate rips in kitchen flooring in any apartment no matter who lives there,” he said. “That’s a clear violation of the housing code, and it needs to be addressed.”
Bowers said the city plans to conduct another fair housing survey in August 2017.
