U.N. Envoy Checks State of Housing and Homelessness in Los Angeles

"Millions of people in the U.S. are spending high percentages of their income to make their monthly rent and mortgage payment, face foreclosure or eviction, and live in overcrowded and substandard conditions... The number of homeless continues to rise with increasing numbers of working families and individuals finding themselves on the streets..." — Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing

The United Nations' Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing recently visited Los Angeles on a two-day fact-finding mission.

Numerous community-based organizations collaborated in creating a tour for Raquel Rolnik, who made stops in South Los Angeles, the Eastside, and the Skid Row district of Downtown over the course of November 2 and 3. Rolnik made two trips to Skid Row, visiting the area once during daylight hours and again at night.

HOUSING ADVOCATE — Raquel Rolnik, the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, speaks with residents of La Villa Hermosa apartments in the Jefferson Park area of Los Angeles. Rolnik toured South Los Angeles, Skid Row and East Los Angeles to get a first-hand observation for a report to be released by the end of the year. Pictured (left to right): Rolnik, Maria Mejia, Rosa Nealy and Alfred Pierre.

As part of the tour, presentations were made by several participating organizations during a town hall meeting convened the evening of November 2 at the offices of the California Endowment, a non-profit health foundation with headquarters Downtown. The skits, slideshow presentations, and personal testimonies offered during the meeting were intended to provide Rolnik with views of the effects of what some call Los Angeles' housing crisis, as well as organizing strategies being used to fight it.

Los Angeles is considered by some to be the "homeless capital" of the United States, with an estimated 40,000 to 100,000 people who cannot afford any housing, according to the Los Angeles Community Action Network, citing statistics provided by Gary Blasi, a professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948, states that, among other things, "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being" of themselves and their family, including housing.

The U.N.'s rapporteur on housing "is an independent expert appointed by the (U.N.) Human Rights Council to examine and report" on the level of adequate housing throughout the world, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights website.

Rolnik, appointed to the three-year post in May 2008, visited seven cities on her U.S. mission, including Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Chicago, Washington, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

She said that her priorities during the visit were to gain first-hand knowledge of the effects of foreclosures; public housing demolition; homelessness; and the conditions for residents of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Coalition Los Angeles, one of the 15 organizations that helped organize Rolnik's tour, is a multicultural and multi-issue organization working on civic participation and electoral involvement.

Bilal Ali, a Coalition L.A. organizer who works in the MacArthur Park and West Adams districts, said that his group had to meet with Rolnik because it also believes housing is a human right.

"We wanted her to observe the housing crisis here in the form of the lack of preservation of affordable housing, the lack of production of affordable housing, and the lack of a dedicated funding source for the housing trust fund in Los Angeles," Ali said. "We hope that through our efforts she (Rolnik) will be able to identify not only slum housing conditions, but the lack of resources going into the production and preservation of affordable housing."

Rolnik said she was unable to share her opinions of what she saw and heard during her two-day trip to Los Angeles, stating that, as a matter of protocol, she must first discuss her findings with the government of the country she's visiting.

However, speaking at the California Endowment, Rolnik acknowledged the work of various community organizations mobilizing around slum housing conditions, saying, "I have seen a lot of struggle, a lot of solidarity, and a lot of mobilizing, and I am thinking that this is the way, this is the hope."

A more extensive report will be sent by the end of November to the U.S. government and the U.N. Human Rights Council. A final, comprehensive report is expected in early 2010.

For more information, visit the website of the U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at www.ohchr.org.

Thandisizwe Chimurenga is an Assistant Editor at the L.A. Watts Times.

Photo of Raquel Rolnik speaking to housing advocates by Rebecca Tull. Image of U.N. Human Rights preliminary report from www.ohchr.org.

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