14 Comment

• Robert Meaney February 11, 2019 at 8:34 am

  @3rd Ward HEB – What a design. Something about gentrification screwing over the established populace and the layout of this land go hand in hand. Missed opportunity by Swamplot not to have this picture in the morning update pic.
• hooligan February 11, 2019 at 9:32 am

  Serious question. How does a LGBTQ senior housing complex not violate fair housing laws?
• Kathryn Way February 11, 2019 at 10:28 am

  Per the HBJ article, “The project will provide housing and access to services such as primary medical care, counseling and peer support, for low-income seniors regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.” So, by specifically making it a policy to not discriminate, they’re not necessarily focusing on LGBTQ individuals. The housing will largely be for clients of The Montrose Center, with caseworkers helping them find the housing. Since TMC serves mostly LGBTQ individuals, it will largely be LGBTQ housing, but anyone who fits the criteria will be able to access the services, thus making it compliant with fair housing laws.
• Wolf Brand Chili February 11, 2019 at 11:34 am

  RE: LGBTQ senior housing
  .
  To answer hooligan’s question: it doesn’t violate federal fair housing laws because sexual orientation is not a protected category. No protection = no violation possible.

  Excerpt from HUD’s Fair Housing page (note that sexual orientation is not a protected class):

  The Fair Housing Act prohibits this discrimination because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. A variety of other federal civil rights laws, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, prohibit discrimination in housing and community development programs and activities, particularly those that are assisted with HUD funding. These civil rights laws include obligations such as taking reasonable steps to ensure meaningful access to their programs and activities for persons with limited English proficiency (LEP) and taking appropriate steps to ensure effective communication with individuals with disabilities through the provision of appropriate auxiliary aids and services. Various federal fair housing and civil rights laws require HUD and its program participants to affirmatively further the purposes of the Fair Housing Act.
• hooligan February 11, 2019 at 1:03 pm

  Thanks y’all!
• HappyGoLucky February 11, 2019 at 1:16 pm

  Of course ,some members of the African-American community don’t want GLBTQ people in their hood .But the black community demands the right(s) to be in any other neighborhood.And if they don’t get their way: out comes the professional whiners: Sheila Jackson Lee, Garnet Coleman, etc.And if their demands aren’t met, then it’s lawsuit time. DOUBLE standard hypocrites. The black NIMBYer’s… Just saying… P.S. Let’s see if Swamplot posts this comment !!!
• JC February 11, 2019 at 1:39 pm

  Some years ago, I lived in an apartment near W Alabama Icehouse. The abandoned house next door caught fire (arson) . The guy in the apartment next to mine was deaf. I had to kick in his door to get him out. He was an evil bastard and a collector of stray cats who would shit in the stairway. Human soul. Gotta get to know your neighbors. He spoke little English, I spoke less Lithiuanian, and he being deef as a post it really didn’t make that much difference. Bless the one Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, we got by in Latin.
• dee February 11, 2019 at 1:54 pm

  houston now is similar to what los angeles was 30 years back. the city’s changing quickly. the new federal highways in construction all over the place are going to accelerate that change even more. people have to let go of an idealized, older houston that never actually existed outside their head. change is good.
• DontKnowWhyImShockedButIAm February 11, 2019 at 2:09 pm

  HappyGoLucky, I just want to make sure I understand your point. Are you saying that I, as an African American and a taxpayer, have less of a right to live anywhere I can afford than people of other races? And that my or any elected official’s complaints about being denied the right to live wherever I can afford simply amount to “whining?”
• Cody February 11, 2019 at 5:23 pm

  Wolf: Not a protected class, so it’s okay. I wonder how that would fly if housing was for anyone NOT LGBT (forgive me for not knowing all the extra letters being thrown in recently)
  .
  Call me an old skool liberal, but I still like the concept of “housing”. And it’s leased/sold to whoever wants to rent/buy it.
• Cody February 11, 2019 at 5:26 pm

  Don’tKnowWhy: I *THINK* (and man, don’t hold me to this because I was almost as confused as you), that he’s claiming many black Americans are anti LGBT (something I haven’t seen), and thus there is a double standard that black Americans would be NIMBY about ‘gay housing’ but if there was someone that tried to be NIMBY about ‘black housing’ there would be hell to pay.
  .
  Though personally I don’t see anyone trying to keep anyone out based on skin tone who who they find attractive. If it happens its super rare and more often to be used as a boggie man to scare people to voting along tribal lines vs. coming together (since if there were no racial divisions, one party would be hosed)
• Confused_Individual February 11, 2019 at 5:37 pm

  This is a new one. An LGBT housing community is not necessarily focused on LGBT individuals.
• marsto February 11, 2019 at 10:13 pm

  Cody, that was a seriously constructive, concise and insightful comment.
  A gold star for you, sir.
• Adoile Turner III February 12, 2019 at 10:28 am

  @HappyGoLucky LGBTQ frienldy, Rufugee, homeless re-entry, convict re entry housing is always in AA neighborhoods regardless of the residents want it there or not. Keep your bigoted comments factual at least.