Activist Denounces Lack of Affordable Housing
David Levy protested against the Vietnam War in the 1960s, embraced the environmental movement in the 1970s, and demonstrated for a nuclear freeze in the 1980s.
But during the 1990s, the growing inability of low-income workers in Orange County to afford a decent place to live has occupied most of his time and attention.
“Housing is such an important aspect of people’s lives, they’re not going to feel good about their place in society if they are told, ‘You get to live in this roach-infested, rat-infested place where the plumbing doesn’t work and the landlord is taking your money and not doing a thing for you,’ ” said Levy, a 42-year-old counselor with the Fair Housing Council of Orange County and an affordable housing activist.
“You give people a crummy neighborhood to live in and that perhaps results in the kids winding up in gangs, and now we’ve got huge expenses for criminal enforcement and new jails. Maybe if we invested money in the housing side of things, maybe we could reduce those expenses elsewhere.”
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Levy encourages creating affordable housing as a board member of the Orange County Affordable Housing Clearing House. But as one of nine counselors with the Fair Housing Council, he is busy with the everyday problems of both tenants and landlords.
The Fair Housing Council contracts with 15 cities and the county to respond to housing-related complaints. The organization also has two attorneys on staff who help individuals take legal action if necessary. Most of the counselors also are licensed mediators who try to resolve disagreements without going to court.
Of the 20,000 disputes handled by the agency last year, 95% were in response to tenant complaints. Landlords typically rely on their own legal advisors, Levy said. The most common dispute is over the return of a tenant’s security deposit, followed by complaints of substandard housing conditions.
“We just helped a guy who is working two jobs, a regular 7 to 3:30 job in Irvine, and then to bring in extra money, he cleans classrooms at a school in Yorba Linda. He is working hard to do the right thing and his landlord was trying to retaliate against him for asking for some repairs to be made. Fortunately, this guy stood his ground and we were able to help him.”
Levy first worked for the Fair Housing Council as a computer systems consultant. The Cal Tech-trained engineer had always kept his social activism as an avocation, earning a living from his technological expertise.
But the mission of the organization, founded in 1965 in the wake of the federal Civil Rights Act, seemed like a match for his social concerns. He became a counselor three years ago.
“Fair housing councils were formed all over the United States as a result of the Civil Rights Act. Our primary mission is the elimination of discrimination in housing. All the other things we do are outgrowths of that mission.”
When housing discrimination is suspected, the council will send out “testers” to determine if there is a racial bias on the part of a landlord.
“The area where we get the most complaints is in discrimination against families with children. You commonly used to see complexes advertised that said, ‘adult living--no children.’ That mind-set is still out there, although it’s no longer legal to actively advertise it or pursue it.”
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Levy believes that many of the housing complaints he deals with on a daily basis are driven by an overall lack of affordable housing in Orange County.
“What I have a big problem with in Orange County is where the definition of affordability ends up. All the definitions of affordability are based on median income, and Orange County has a skewed median income--it’s a very affluent place. For a family of four, it’s approximately $61,000.
“All the median means is that half are making more and half are making less. But in the half who are making less, some are making a lot less. And in the planning that goes on, we tend not to accommodate people at that economic level.”
New developments planned in South Orange County could help remedy the problem, but Levy is not optimistic.
“When you’re building whole new places like Rancho Santa Margarita and Foothill Ranch, and Mission Viejo is doubling in size and all of that, that’s where the opportunity exists. But without the political will of the decision-makers, it’s hard to accomplish. They want people to mow the lawns; they want people working at the fast-food restaurants; they want people doing the dry cleaning--but they’re not providing anywhere in their communities for people at this income level to live.”
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Profile: David Levy
Age: 42
Hometown: Bovingdon, England
Residence: Irvine
Education: Studied electrical engineering at the California Institute of Technology
Background: Test engineer for Silicon Systems Inc.; telescope control systems engineer at Palomar Observatory; computer systems consultant; six-year association with the Fair Housing Council of Orange County
Activism: Affiliated with Alliance for Survival since 1979; helped coordinate statewide campaign for Proposition 107, the $150-million Housing and Homeless Bond Act approved by voters in 1990; congressional campaign manager for Democrat Jeff Le Tourneau, who challenged former Rep. Robert K. Dornan in 1992; former treasurer of county Democratic Party and current member of Democratic Central Committee; board member, Homeward Bound: The Orange County Homeless Coalition and Orange County Affordable Housing Clearing House
On affordable housing: “You can’t just say, ‘OK, we’ll build this lush resort and serve the affluent and the wealthy and we won’t worry about where the minimum-wage maids and busboys are going to live.’ Generally, it’s put forward in our country that if you work hard, you’re entitled to at least a decent place to live, but that’s not happening in Orange County.”
Source: David Levy; Researched by RUSS LOAR / For The Times