A
MINORITY SET–ASIDE
A period of
public debate followed, during which Richard Harvey on behalf of
the Cleveland Association of Real Estate Brokers, the black trade
group, mounted a campaign urging OHFA to set aside 25 percent of
the mortgage assistance to help blacks move anywhere they chose.
"It's not wrong if a neighborhood becomes all Jewish," said Richard
Harvey," or if it is all Italian or all Polish. Why must it be a
threat if it becomes all black?"
Winston
Richie responded, "When people ask what's wrong with an all-black
community, I ask them to explain what's right about an all-white
community. We're not proposing quotas. No one is hindered in his or
her efforts to buy anywhere he chooses. We just market to the race
that is underrepresented."
In June 1988
the OHFA board adopted a policy statement on fair housing and
integrated communities. The statement said OHFA "may respond to
local preferences for...the purpose of encouraging residential
integration, provided these activities are not coercive but
voluntary and persuasive, and that they expand rather than restrict
housing choice for minorities."
Finally, the
board resolved the dispute with a compromise. It set aside nearly
$11 million for prospective buyers willing to move to areas where
their population group was underrepresented and allocated an equal
amount to minority buyers to help them move anywhere they
chose.
Although OHFA
mortgage assistance helps foster balanced racial distribution in
Cleveland suburbs with modestly priced housing, its $73,260 cap on
the price of the eligible housing severely limits the program's use
in communities such as Shaker Heights where the median house price
is higher.