A proposed amendment will make it harder for poor persons to exercise their constitutional right to vote, says a national homeless advocacy group. The amendment, to be offered as part of a U.S. House of Representatives proposal to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, would create a new source of affordable housing. But it also would prohibit any non-profit organization receiving the new affordable housing funding -- or any group with which it is affiliated -- from helping register voters.
According to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, the bill could exacerbate disenfranchisement among poor and homeless persons and possibly result in fewer services for them. Homeless and low-income persons face significant barriers to voter registration and are less likely to be registered to vote than middle- and upper-income persons.
Voter registration at affordable housing sites and in low-income neighborhoods helps ensure that low-income persons are able to exercise their constitutional right to vote said Maria Foscarinis, Executive Director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. Without help from housing and service providers, many persons do not register. The goal of this amendment seems to be the disenfranchisement of low-income persons.
Groups providing and developing affordable housing are in a unique situation to help formerly homeless people register to vote, said Tulin Ozdeger, Civil Rights Staff Attorney at the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. Not only do these groups have access to those entering their housing programs, but they also are more likely to know about the barriers homeless persons face when they try to register to vote.
Many nonprofit groups sponsor or participate in voter registration. Prohibiting those groups from providing housing under the program or affiliating with others who do could have an even broader impact than disenfranchisement, said Foscarinis. She noted that churches, university organizations, and social service agencies all help low-income people register to vote. Non-profits who wanted to keep housing funds could not work with those groups, even though they provide other services that poor people may need.
The House bill would target funding in the first several years for persons who lost their housing as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Its outrageous that Congress would respond to Katrina by asking groups to participate in the disenfranchisement of the very Gulf Coast residents theyre trying to help.
