[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 48 (Thursday, April 11, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H1917-H1918]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE HOUSING FAIRNESS ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Al Green) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. I thank the many persons who have labored long 
and hard to help fulfill Dr. Martin Luther King's dream. He devoted his 
life to transforming neighborhoods into brotherhoods, and I'd like to 
speak to you today about this concept because, to do this--to transform 
neighborhoods into brotherhoods--we must become

[[Page H1918]]

neighbors. We have to have communities wherein all persons are a part 
of the fiber and fabric of the various communities that we live in.
  Dr. King was in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968, and he was there on this 
mission of bringing people together. He was there to help with some 
issues related to workers and workers' rights. Unfortunately, on April 
4 of 1968, Dr. King was assassinated. His life's work did not end, 
however. His dream is still alive, and because he dared to transform 
neighborhoods into brotherhoods, the President of the United States at 
that time, President Johnson, took up the fight for Dr. King, and 
within 7 days a piece of legislation passed through the House that 
dealt with discrimination as it relates to where people live.
  This legislation had bipartisan support. The Democratic supporter was 
Senator Walter Mondale, a very well-known figure in American politics. 
The Republican supporter was an African American, by the way, who was a 
member of the Senate, the Honorable Edward Brooke. These two Senators 
had for years been trying to pass this legislation to eliminate 
discrimination in housing. They had some degree of success, but they 
were not able to get the legislation passed.
  In 1968, 7 days after Dr. King's death, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 
passed, prohibiting discrimination based upon race, color, religion or 
national origin as it relates to the sale or to the financing of 
housing. In 1974, the act was amended to include sex discrimination. In 
1988, it was amended to prohibit discrimination based upon physical or 
mental handicap as well as familial status.
  The Housing Fairness Act, which I have introduced, models this piece 
of legislation. It, too, deals with discrimination that is invidious 
with reference to refusing to rent to a person, to sell housing to a 
person, to negotiate housing, to make housing available, to set 
different terms for some than for others, to falsely deny that housing 
is unavailable when it is available. This kind of discrimination still 
exists, but it's important for us today to realize that it is very much 
having an impact on persons whom many of us do not assume are victims 
of housing discrimination. The FY 2011 statistics, the latest available 
to me, connote that 27,092 complaints were filed with programs 
associated with the Fair Housing Initiatives, and of these complaints 
about 12 percent to 54 percent of them were complaints based upon 
disability.
  Now, it's important for us to focus on disability for a moment 
because many of our veterans returning from wars, persons who chose to 
go to distant places, don't always return the same way they left. Many 
of them have given their lives, and others have survived, but they have 
survived and they are handicapped. Many of them returning will be 
discriminated against because there are people who discriminate against 
people who are handicapped. They may not know that it's a veteran, but 
whether they know or not, the act of discrimination is still harmful.
  I will submit to you that it makes sometimes tears well in the eyes 
of people who understand how our veterans have fought for us. So I am 
here today to make an appeal that we support Fair Housing Initiatives 
and that we do all that we can to transform neighborhoods into 
brotherhoods.

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