Employment & Housing – Page 7 – CAHRO – California Association of Human Relations Organizations

Generally, human relations commissions are represented on affirmative action committees or have their own committee to address county employment issues. Commissions frequently will monitor county employment policies, procedures and practices to ensure that they are not discriminatory.

As in employment legislation may preempt local governmental agencies from enforcing laws barring discrimination in housing. However, fair housing groups investigate and discover discrimination in housing by sending out “testers” to determine whether people representing those protected by law are treated differently than other applicants for housing. When discrimination is found the group may charge the offending party with discrimination.

Human relations commission often develop working relationships with local fair housing groups.

Commissions may take the lead to ensure that people who move into areas where they are not the dominant racial or ethnic group are welcomed. Programs to accomplish this vary according to the situation. The type of activity appropriate when a relatively large number of people representing an ethnic or racial group move into an area populated with people from a different ethnic or racial group may be inappropriate when a few families of one ethnic or racial group move into a relatively homogeneous community of people from another ethnic or racial group. Programs may involve the residents in isolation from the institutions of the county, or they may involve the schools, law enforcement and other public agencies.

Nearly 1 in 5 adults over 65 are ‘hidden poor,’ study finds

By Carmen Chandler| 2016-12-02T17:41:24+00:00 September 1st, 2015|Employment & Housing, Health|

More than 772,000 senior adults, or more than 1 in 5, live in hidden poverty in the Golden State, many of them unable to afford basic needs but are ineligible for government help, according to a new UCLA study.

The authors of the study found the population of 65 and older are quickly becoming part of

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As His Term Wanes, Obama Champions Workers’ Rights

By Carmen Chandler| 2016-12-02T17:41:24+00:00 September 1st, 2015|Employment & Housing, Intergroup Relations|

WASHINGTON — With little fanfare, the Obama administration has been pursuing an aggressive campaign to restore protections for workers that have been eroded by business activism, conservative governance and the evolution of the economy in recent decades.

In the last two months alone, the administration has introduced

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San Francisco Firefighters Become Unintended Safety Net for the Homeless

By Carmen Chandler| 2016-12-02T17:41:24+00:00 August 27th, 2015|Disability, Employment & Housing, Health|

SAN FRANCISCO — When the emergency bell sounds at Fire Station 1 here, firefighters pull on boots and backpacks, swing into Engine 1 and hurtle out the door in almost a single motion, a blast of red lights and caterwauling sirens. More often than not, there is no fire.

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No room at the inn for innocence

By Carmen Chandler| 2016-12-02T17:41:26+00:00 July 22nd, 2015|Employment & Housing, Police & Community|

The children gather at dusk on the pitted motel parking lot, hard against the sound wall of the freeway. They kick a scuffed soccer ball and play with the stray dogs they have rescued. One holds a cockroach he pretends is a pet turtle.

Eddie Martinez, 14, rides his bike among them, happy they are

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A dose of reality on homelessness

By Carmen Chandler| 2016-12-02T17:41:26+00:00 July 21st, 2015|Employment & Housing|

Four years ago, after a long and desperate search for housing in San Francisco, I moved my daughter into a studio apartment on a seedy stretch of Market Street, between a tavern and what police described to me as a “parolee hotel.”

For a few years, things went well. My college-student daughter learned to coexist with

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New Push Against Segregation in Federally Subsidized Housing

By Carmen Chandler| 2016-12-02T17:41:26+00:00 July 8th, 2015|Employment & Housing|

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Wednesday unveiled new rules to combat segregation in federally subsidized housing, a piece of President Obama’s effort to address the racial disparities he argues are helping fuel unrest in cities across the country.

The long-awaited regulations, which are to be detailed

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L.A. loses discrimination appeal, white gardener may get $4 million

By Carmen Chandler| 2016-12-02T17:41:27+00:00 July 1st, 2015|Disability, Employment & Housing, Intergroup Relations|

The city of Los Angeles may have to pay a former park groundskeeper more than $4 million after a state appeal court last week affirmed a verdict for racial and disability discrimination.

James Duffy, a mentally disabled white gardener, sued after his Latino supervisor harassed him, assigned him to inferior jobs and told him, “I hate

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Obama Making Millions More Americans Eligible for Overtime

By Carmen Chandler| 2016-12-02T17:41:27+00:00 June 30th, 2015|Employment & Housing|

President Obama announced Monday night a rule change that would make millions more Americans eligible for overtime pay.

The rule would raise the salary threshold below which workers automatically qualify for time-and-a-half overtime wages to $50,440 a year from $23,660, according

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Three stories of hardship put a face on L.A.’s exorbitant housing costs

By Carmen Chandler| 2016-12-02T17:41:28+00:00 June 22nd, 2015|Employment & Housing|

In Reseda, an elderly couple fret about where they will go at the end of the month, when they are forced out of the one-room apartment they have lived in for 29 years.

In Tujunga, a retired woman lives in a backyard shed, treating her high blood pressure with tea made from her garden and bathing

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Seeking balance, L.A. council members may soften homeless ordinances

By Carmen Chandler| 2016-12-02T17:41:28+00:00 June 22nd, 2015|Employment & Housing|

After years of restraint, the Los Angeles City Council is embracing aggressive tactics against homeless encampments, setting the stage for sweeps aimed at eliminating tent cities and makeshift shelters.

But amid widespread criticism that they have gone too far, some council members are talking about softening two ordinances that give authorities wide latitude in confiscating and

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