The debate over fair housing in Evanston has raised concern about the involvement of the Human Relations Commission.
The discussion began at a Sept. 30 public hearing held by the Human Services Committee. The meeting was called to gauge residents’ opinions on a proposed amendment to the Fair Housing Ordinance, which would make discrimination based on source of income illegal. The amendment would include government-issued vouchers.
But by the meeting’s end, some aldermen and residents were questioning the objectivity of the commission, where the amendment supposedly originated. Ald. Gene Feldman (9th), a committee member, said the issue lacked necessary research. And the next day the committee chairwoman, Ald. Ann Rainey (8th) resigned, citing “personality conflicts.”
The commission is charged with “getting people to work together,” said Paula Haynes, the commission’s director. The commission comprises nine Evanston residents who meet monthly to discuss issues and a city staff of four, including Haynes. The staff’s duties include enforcing the Fair Housing and the Residential Landlord and Tenant ordinances and mediating community disputes.
According to Haynes, a majority of the commission voted to support the amendment. If it passes, the commission would be responsible both for investigating complaints and determining if they should proceed to court.
However, Ald. Arthur Newman (1st) expressed concern that the commission’s support for the amendment might skew its investigations.
“I think there’s a question in the community of the fairness of the Human Relations Commission,” Newman said.
The commission is also a member of the Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs, which supports fair housing efforts. The center’s executive director, Gail Schechter, spoke in favor of the amendment at the hearing.
But Schechter said the center would not have any role in enforcing the ordinance but would report violations to Evanston.
Despite the accusations, Haynes said the commission has maintained its objectivity and that the comments were “very unfair.”
“We are biased toward the law,” she said. Though the commission receives “many” complaints about Evanston landlords discriminating against voucher holders, it cannot act because the law does not cover source of income.
But Feldman said at the hearing that the commission should not even have taken a position on the issue.
“On the basis of no public hearing, the Human Relations Commission has set in motion a process in which many lives are affected without careful scrutiny and investigation,” he said.
Mavis Hagemann, the acting chairwoman of the commission said her body did not send the amendment to committee. She found out about the public hearing “from reading about it in the paper. We weren’t prepared for the onslaught.”
Haynes said that the commission had been “talking about (the amendment) for two or three years,” but that its most recent incarnation was Rainey’s suggestion.
It will probably be considered at the next committee meeting, Haynes said. The committee can either vote on whether to send the amendment to Evanston City Council or send it back to committee — “a way of killing it without voting on killing it.”
When the committee meets next, however, it will be one alderman short. Rainey quit the committee after the Sep. 30 meeting.
“I’m sure that what happened at the meeting had a lot to do with it,” Haynes said.
Rainey declined to comment. Her letter of resignation said, “I have come to accept that my participation on the committee is disruptive. The Human Services Committee has work to do, and I do not want to be an impediment to its efforts.”
