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Rev. Marcia Dinkins, TUSA
executive director, spurred the organization to taking up
the cause of eviction crisis and the blacklist because of a
personal experience. Having recently moved to Toledo, she
encountered problems renting the appropriate apartment even
though she has never previously had any issue with renting.
However, once her name inadvertently ended up on the “list,”
she felt “she had no remedy to have my name removed from the
list.”
Pastor Steven Valles of
Parkwood Avenue Seventh Day Church mentioned the fact that
“from September 2014 to September 2018, more than 24,000
eviction law suits were filed against Toledoans – an average
of 6,000 petitions filed a year.” Such evictions remain in
the public record, noted Valles.
George Thomas, an attorney
with the Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE), spoke of
the disadvantage that tenants face within the legal system.
“The vast number of tenants cannot afford legal
representation,” he said. “The most vulnerable members of
the community are at risk. He noted that less than three
percent of tenants have legal representation compared to
more than 75 percent of landlords who do.
Thomas mentioned that
Cleveland and Dayton have initiated local task forces to
deal with their eviction problems and that ABLE is compiling
statistics and “with TUSA’s leadership will be putting
together” an action plan.
State Rep. Paula
Hicks-Hudson (District 44) said “we have an opportunity to
deal with a crisis.” As part of the Ohio Legislative Black
Caucus, Hicks-Hudson said she and her colleagues “made a
promise that our constituents can live in their
neighborhoods.” She said that the Caucus will be able to
take the data that TUSA and ABLE assemble and fashion
legislation “to address the issue of home insecurity, basic
fundamental human rights to live safely.”
Further, she said, “how do
we address the lack of home ownership.”
Toledo City Councilman
Larry Sykes, who has prodded the University of Toledo to put
together a study on poverty in the metropolitan area, spoke
of the particularly high unemployment, high homelessness
numbers, high rent compared to income and high eviction
rates in three council districts – 1, 3 and 4.
So many people are paying
50 to 60 percent of their income on rent, he said,
particularly in those districts, when the acceptable rate
for rent should be no higher than 30 percent. “Property
owners are gouging our people,” said Sykes.
Both elected officials,
Hicks-Hudson and Sykes, followed the TUSA press conference
with related events of their own. Hicks-Hudson held a town
hall meeting the next day to inform constituents of the Ohio
Promise – an agenda compiled by Ohio House Democrats to
enact legislation designed to enhance the lives of Ohio’s
working-class people.
Sykes, during a City
Council meeting the following day of his Finance Committee,
introduced the poverty study that UT has published.
“It’s time to change,
change must come,” said Robert Birt, pastor of Glass City
Church and president of TUSA. “We’re asking you, as a
community, to get involved. Never look down on a man unless
you are lifting him up.”
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