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ARTICLES
"Audit finds Napa Latino renters face discrimination, " Cristina de Leon-Menjivar, NVR
Building Inspectors keep a look out for safety and code compliance," Kevin Courtney, NVR
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Free Exhibit, Lecture and Short Video
Historical Civil Rights Photographs
April 24, 2008
Help Fair Housing Napa Valley commemorate the 40th Anniversary
of the Federal Fair Housing Act
With guest speaker and fair housing director
Bernard J. Kleina,
a participant in the “Chicago Freedom Movement” protests, where he took
the photographs displayed in this exhbit
Mr. Kleina will comment on the full-color photographs and his 42 years in the
fair housing movement.
11 a.m., Thursday, April 24, 2008
Covenant Presbyterian Church
1226 Salvador Avenue, Napa
Free Admission—although donations are gratefully accepted
Lunch will be available for a small fee.
Please RSVP by April 18 as space is limited.
Contact: 707.224.9720
Fair Housing Napa Valley Joins National Lawsuit
National Builder and Developer Accused of Housing Discrimination
Fair Housing Organizations File Federal Lawsuit against AG Spanos Companies
On Thursday, June 21st, the National Fair Housing Alliance, Fair Housing of Marin, and Fair Housing Napa Valley held a news conference to announce a housing discrimination lawsuit against AG Spanos Companies, a builder and developer of multifamily housing and commercial properties in at least 16 states. The lawsuit, also filed by Metro Fair Housing Services of Atlanta, GA and the Fair Housing Continuum of Cocoa, FL, alleges that Spanos failed to comply with federal accessibility standards in the design and construction of their properties.
AG Spanos Companies is headquartered in Stockton, CA with regional division offices across the country. All of the 35 properties the Alliance investigated had significant design flaws, rendering them inaccessible to people with disabilities. These properties, totaling more than 10,000 units, represent only a sample of the at least 84 Spanos properties that are covered by the federal Fair Housing Act. The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to discriminate based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability or familial status.
Examples of accessibility barriers include no handicap parking spaces, steps instead of ramps, inaccessible kitchens and bathrooms, narrow door widths and passageways, and insurmountable thresholds, The Alliance investigated properties in 7 states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Kansas, Florida and Georgia.
Speakers included Shanna Smith, president and CEO of the Alliance; Nancy Kenyon, executive director of Fair Housing of Marin; and Kathryn Winter, executive director of Fair Housing Napa Valley.
Winter's comments were as follows:
The web site for Hawthorne Village in Napa California invites potential renters to fantasize about living
there. It asks:
“What if you could experience the finest in luxury apartment living in one of our areas’ finest
cities? It answers, “It is Hawthorne Village, Napa’s newest and best ever apartment
community. Combining the experience of the nation’s largest luxury apartment developer with
all of the treasures of the Napa Valley would certainly be a hit, and that is what Hawthorne
Village promises to be.” ( www.hawthornvillageapts.com/s/homepage)
What the advertisement doesn’t say is, “Disabled need not apply.”
At Hawthorne Village, A.G. Spanos Companies have created a “Potemkin Village,” a false front of
attractive luxury apartments with ponds, fountains, and palm trees that hide an ugly truth - people with
disabilities are unable and unwelcome to live there. People that use wheelchairs encounter internal
thresholds at balcony doors that are a barrier to use the balcony; they cannot maneuver in the limited
space in the bathrooms or have room to safely transfer from a wheelchair to the tub; toilets are not
centered to allow for grab bars, so it is unsafe to transfer from a wheelchair to the toilet; they cannot
access the communal exercise area; the slopes on curb cuts are too steep and have no railings; they
have insufficient accessible parking, access to parking, or space to exit a vehicle and set up a
wheelchair to enter a dwelling. They are excluded.
In Napa, affordable housing is in short supply and very expensive. To further limit housing to people
with disabilities is a betrayal of the public trust and of all the people who thought they were protected
by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Federal Fair Housing Act. It is irresponsible that nearly
two decades after groundbreaking civil rights protections for the disabled a developer would design
and build inaccessible housing in our community. What is worse, they are perpetuating the violations
by building an addition that appears to mirror the design of the existing complex. This is happening in
a county with the second highest proportion of people with disabilities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Holly Morris, a former Board member of Fair Housing Napa Valley who must use a wheelchair to get
around, describes her search for accessible housing:
“Finding housing that is accessible is a tremendous challenge. It has always been frustrating
and painful. Limited options have forced me to live in places that are not only inconvenient but
at times dangerous. But the most significant consequence is the loss of dignity that comes
along with being turned away again and again.”
9/24/06 | "Race Matters, Part 1"
Kevin Courtney, Napa Valley Register
"I moved to Napa in 1973. One of the first things I noticed was that Napa didn't have black people.
Didn't then and hardly does now. The latest federal estimate puts the county's black population at 1.3 percent. In Napa, it's almost certainly less.
What does one make of 1.3 percent? Such a freakishly low percentage, especially for a community at the edge of the intensely multi-racial Bay Area?
There are many possible explanations, ranging from common patterns of association to outright bigotry. Perhaps the best accounting is lost to history."
10/8/06 | "Race Matters, Part 2"
'"Napa has a long and ugly history of written and unwritten covenants regarding racial discrimination. Blacks were simply not allowed to buy or rent in Napa," Mary Herzog wrote.
Another reader said she bought a house in north Napa a few years ago. She was shocked to find that the deed prohibited the home's sale to Negroes.'
Starting on January 1, 2007 Landlords must give long term tenants 60 day no cause notice
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