American Dreams

As Bowling Green’s housing discrimination problem increases, groups around the city offer their solution ideas.

• Linda McCray, director of the Bowling Green Human Rights Comission, said Bowling Green could help reduce housing discrimination by passing a city law substantially equivalent to the national Fair Housing Act Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. A local version of the law would allow the Bowling Green Human Rights Commission to locally regulate housing discrimination complaints, instead of processing complaints through other agencies like the Kentucky Human Rights Commission, McCray said. The inability to regulate locally may discourage victims from filing complaints because of the long, often tedious processing procedure, she said. The Bowling Green City Commission has tabled previous attempts to pass a substantially equivalent law.
• George Mendoza Jr., director of Bowling Green Habitat for Humanity, said he hopes to create a network among all the housing communities in the city, including Housing Assistance and Development Services, Inc., the Housing Authority of Bowling Green and Habitat for Humanity among others. The network would allow for free flow of information and referrals among housing organizations, he said. “I haven’t seen a togetherness of all of our groups,” he said. “We need to work together for the benefit of the resident.”
• The Bowling Green Code Enforcement Division began the Target Area Inspection program five years ago to help improve housing conditions in Bowling Green one area of town at a time, said Alex Colovos, Bowling Green Code Enforcement Division coordinator. Each year, the division targets one area of the city. Before the inspection, the division sends a letter written in English, Spanish and Bosnian to every property owner in the area informing them of the inspection and several free services the city will offer beforehand, he said. These services include removal of dead trees, installation of handrails or ramps for disabled residents and removal of graffiti, according to the letter sent to property owners. During the program, inspectors have covered the whole city once and inspected about 8,000 properties, Colovos said. The program is currently working on its second sweep of the city, he said