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Burlington Commission on Human Rights, 1964-1965

Report on Urban Renewal Programs and Their Effects on Racial Minority Group Housing in Three Iowa Cities - Page 20

into account in selecting the family to go into the relocated home. The Committee was never able to learn finally who would make the decision regarding this matter--whether it would be the city, the Urban Renewal Office or the Non-Profit Corporation. The relocation supervisor and his associates felt that this would be no problem. The Committee members, on the contrary, felt it might be a grave problem.

While it would appear that Sioux City has made considerable progress in the past five years in preparing itself for a major relocation project, some of the hard-core details remain to be worked out. Perhaps the most serious obstacle is the fact that rental properties are just not available in sufficient quantity for members of minority racial groups. The laudable effort to create a nonprofit corporation which might help to ease this problem also raises questions. Not the leas of these questions is the one raised by the suggestion that the desires of neighbors would be consulted before families would be relocated into a particular area. If this becomes standard policy, it would obviously lead in no other direction than the creation of new ghettos.

During the course of the hearing, Mr. Louis Garland, president of the Sioux City Chapter of the NAACP, charged that there was a "conspiracy" among the real estate operators not to rent to Negroes in Sioux City and not to be associated with the sale of any property to Negroes in that city. He cited his own experience as a case in point, indicating that he was unable to purchase the same house from a realtor that he was later able to purchase directly from the owner. He also maintained that Negroes found it more difficult to borrow money to buy homes in certain areas than in others.

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into account in selecting the family to go into the relocated home. The Committee was never able to learn finally who would make the decision regarding this matter--whether it would be the city, the Urban Renewal Office or the Non-Profit Corporation. The relocation supervisor and his associates felt that this would be no problem. The Committee members, on the contrary, felt it might be a grave problem. While it would appear that Sioux City has made considerable progress in the past five years in preparing itself for a major relocation project, some of the hard-core details remain to be worked out. Perhaps the most serious obstacle is the fact that rental properties are just not available in sufficient quantity for members of minority racial groups. The laudable effort to create a nonprofit corporation which might help to ease this problem also raises questions. Not the leas of these questions is the one raised by the suggestion that the desires of neighbors would be consulted before families would be relocated into a particular area. If this becomes standard policy, it would obviously lead in no other direction than the creation of new ghettos. During the course of the hearing, Mr. Louis Garland, president of the Sioux City Chapter of the NAACP, charged that there was a "conspiracy" among the real estate operators not to rent to Negroes in Sioux City and not to be associated with the sale of any property to Negroes in that city. He cited his own experience as a case in point, indicating that he was unable to purchase the same house from a realtor that he was later able to purchase directly from the owner. He also maintained that Negroes found it more difficult to borrow money to buy homes in certain areas than in others. 20