In the October edition of the Northeastern University Law Journal, Eric S. Tars, Julia Lum and E. Kieran Paul wrote an article about the right to housing in France and its lessons that can be applied at the United States of America. Nowadays, the US faces a serious homelessness crisis and the authors emphasize the need to address this issue.
Read below an excerpt of the article.
“The United States faces a homelessness crisis of record proportions. Each year, between 1.6 and 3.5 million people experience homelessness, including 1.35 million children. Amid the recent economic downturn and foreclosure crisis, homelessness rates have risen dramatically. In 2010, family homelessness increased by 9%. Social programs provide little help: only 6% percent of renters—two million low-income families or individuals — receive some form of housing assistance from the United States’ largest housing assistance program.
Furthermore, the waitlists to receive housing assistance are closed in many cities due to a lack of funding and affordable rental homes. A dearth of affordable rental housing coupled with a broken housing assistance system means that millions of families do not have a set place to sleep at night. The minimal assistance given to low-income people does not result entirely from a lack of federal resources, but rather is partially due to a skewed priority system that disproportionately benefits middle- and upper-income homeowners.
As one example, the Internal Revenue Code includes a Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID) that provides homeowners with tax deductions increasing in step with the amount of mortgage interest paid on an owner’s first two properties. The MID effectively provides these homeowners with a subsidy that costs the United States more than $79 billion annually. In contrast, the U.S. budget for all low-income housing programs is only $41 billion.
Despite the lack of housing assistance for those who need it most, the United States has international obligations to safeguard the basic human rights of all its citizens. In 1948, the United States took a leading role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that, “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including . . . housing.” The United States has also signed and ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which prohibit discrimination in housing and other areas on the basis of race, sex, religion, and other status. The United States has signed, but not ratified, the InternationalCovenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which provides that all States Parties must “recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing[,] and housing,” and that States will “take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right.” ”
Eric S. Tars is Director of Human Rights and Children’s Rights Programs atthe National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.
Julia Lum served as a fellow at the National Law Center on Homelessness andPoverty though Northeastern University School of Law’s Program on HumanRights and the Global Economy during the fall of 2011.
E. Kieran Paul served as an intern at the National Law Center on Homelessnessand Poverty during the summer of 2010.
To read the full article, click on the green button below.
The Northeastern University Law Journal is the result of a collaboration with the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE). The articles and notes within came out of PHRGE’s 2011 institute on framing economic, social, and cultural rights in the United States, along with the Program’s 2011 award-winning student piece. The distinguished speakers at the institute discussed the benefits and challenges involved with applying international conceptions of human rights to social and legal structures in the United States. To read the October issue, click here.
The above statements about France are not at all true and I along with my children as victims of their Abuse and Violation of Human Rights by France.
They do not assist in fact quite the opposite.. 145,000 expulsions since the lifting of the winter relief?
I would like to know where you have all that information from.
As I have exposed all that France has done including the refusal to give me a lawyer to defend our rights and my children are French MINORS.
Violation of all our rights.
By France
Have a look at my pages.. only one person Mme RAMOS from Brazil replied in all this corruption. The Special Rapporteur never has.
The United Nations has done nothing.
Pamela Jenkins
6 hours ago
145 000 procédures d’expulsion de locataires ont été engagées en 2011 pour cause de loyers impayés. Fin de la trêve hivernale aujourd’hui.
Unlike ·
You and 3 others like this.
Christine Mikolaitis !!!!!
6 hours ago · Unlike · 2
Monique Maitte héritage de la sarkosie à tous les niveaux
5 hours ago · Like · 3
Pamela Greek Jenkins and ONLY in France, but did you add in St Martin where expulsions are done ILLEGALLY when the procedure was illegal. When in 2006 the Rapport INSALUBRITE was begun by the DSDS and the reports and photos LOST. Redone and received at the prefecture in Se…See More
5 hours ago · Like
Dear Sir/ Madame
The reality is not as you have written. For example we were illegally evicted 13 July 2011 by three French gendarmes with their hands on guns yelling insults at me in French threatening arrests if we did not hurry up and get out and as well… YELLING at my 15 year old daughter in her underwear with a towel wrapped around her as she and her sister had been in bed. He yelled at my daughter after she had asked him why he spoke to her mother like she is a dog. The gendarme yelled at her, that she could leave St Martin and did she think that France should pay her tickets.. She IS French and IS a French St Martiner. We were illegally evicted like animals with out any documents no IDS and the man who is a huissier was in a crumpled shirt, dirty jeans unshaven and I could smell alcohol as he yelled at me to HURRY UP AND GET OUT OR I WILL HAVE YOU ARRESTED’
there never was any order to do this eviction.
The landlords are two corrupt French notaries who rented to me via a real estate agence and never with a contract an ILLEGAL HOTEL STUDIO DISGUISED AS A ONE BEDROOM. Confirmed as DANGEROUS. Condemned in 2006 and again in September 2009 by the ARS de la Guadeloupe.. as INSALUBRE danger of ELECTROCUTION.. but as the owners are two French notaries with the connections at the Prefecture, the reports and photos of the DSDS were LOST. in 2006..They were redone not on St Martin where corruption is so rife but on Guadeloupe at the ARS de la Guadeloupe. They were sent to me. I also sent the reports to the PREFET Simonnet who did nothing. To the President of the Collectivite of St Martin who did nothing as well as trying to file police complaints at the gendarmerie who REFUSED to take my complaints. They LAUGHED at me calling me a ‘nana’. After an electrical fire and explosion where the totally rusted and rotten electrical hot plates.. that were 25 years old exploded with a fire causing a total short circuit the gendarmes COVERED that up too and refused to take my complaints Gendarme JAMES… 23 February 2010 at 10h00 and again at 15h00. they laughed. The gendarmes told me I am on their black list. In fact after the DSDS Dept Health January 2006, 17 February 2006 and 27 March 2006 came and took photos and made the reports I moved with my children to another apartment in the same residence. BUT I also was told to keep the keys to the first apartement as it was already in the court. The lawyer told me that ‘maybe you can move back after the judges order the notaries to do the obligatory repairs” BUT there never was a judgment and that lawyer dropped my case. I rented and paid to Marlene Frauilich Benayoun but I did not know she had five convictions. She refused to sign the documents needed for me to receive the government rental assistance. The CAF de la Guadeloupe refused to transfer the payments they were illegally paying to the agency GESCAP / notaries as if an apartment is condemned then no payments can be paid. BUT the reports were covered up so the agency Gescap collected the payments and they were not declared to the court over 5000 euros.
BENAYOUN also planned with the same huissier another escroquerie.
15 to 20 October 2006 we lived another week of terror. My children aged 9 and11. Physically attacked, every day Violation of Domicile, Death Threats, Destruction of Property and the french gendarmes st Martin refused to assist me saying it was a civil affair. They did not even process my complaints and as well refused to take the professional Handwriting analysis from Professor Bryan Found who declared and confirmed the signatures were forged.
BENAYOUN had made two forged contracts with two different forged signatures and with the help of the Huissier EMICA they emptied my bank account to zero.
Benayoun illegally broke the locks, changed them and left us homeless.
The gendarmes refused to assist us and told me to go to a hotel after Benayoun had broken the law. BUT Benayoun told me she is French from France and ” I am like an Arab with children like that”
Not one person on St Martin would assist me with two terrified children that horror week 15 to 20 October 2006.
Finally she was condemned in the Criminal Court and confirmed in the Court of Appeals BUT the huissiers again refused to execute the judgments.
WHERE COULD I GO?
at the gendarmerie I was told I could go back to the old apartment as we had the keys on the advice of the lawyer.
WE WERE FORCED TO RETURN IN OCTOBER 2006 TO A DANGEROUS ILLEGAL APARTMENT as no one on st Martin would assist us.
From October 2006 I battled to get assistance but all deliberately blocked by France against me and my two French minor children because I am not French.
I have FOUR forged signatures that the gendarmes refused to process complaints..
I sent proof to the prosecutors , to the Minister of Justice to the Australian Embassy in Paris, to the President Sarkozy and Hollande and to the Direction Generale de la Gendarmerie.
Left WITHOUT a lawyer.
FRANCE REFUSES TO GIVE ME A LAWYER.
11 July 2011 two men knocked on the door saying they were gendarmes but showed no IDs.
12 July 2011 in 4 1/2 hours I was there at the Gendarmerie LA SAVANNE with a Detective Menoret. he said he was a detective but I have never seen his ID.
A complaint for MIse en Danger Autrui was made in 4 1/2 hours.. He gave me an appointment 13 July 2011 at our illegal dangerous condemned apartment at 10h00 to take photos of as he said the ‘plusieurs infractions’
I went home.
The phone rang around 15,45.
EVICTION TOMORROW someone said and and hung up.
Shocked I called the detective who told me he would call the prefet and call me back. In the meantime I called the prefecture as well where a woman refused to give me her name and said:”Tomorrow? Mme Jenkins you are on our list of evictions but we don’t have any dates. Not tomorrow’
The detective called back and repeated THREE times so my children could hear as well;
Mme Jenkins the Prefet told me there will not be an eviction tomorrow. He said a social worker will come to assist you and your children to move to another logement more secure for you and your childrenas you can not stay there its too dangerous. NO HUIISIERS NO GENDARMES.. he confirmed that three times and said he would be there at 10h00 to take photos’
We went to sleep that night.
08h00 there was an extremely loud banging at the door.
I opened and was shoved out of the way by screaming gendarmes yelling.. GET OUT GET OUT GET BAGS GET OUT ITS FINISHED FOR YOU GET OUT ARE YOU ALONE’
The gendarme shoved me out of the way and blocked the door with his leg and they forced their way inside yelling at my children in bed.. My poor terrified children again the victims of violence woke to find four men three with hands on their guns yelling at them to GET OUT GET OUT GET BAGS NOW.
The gendarmes were yelling at me in English but together speaking French,.
My daughter suddenly in tears turned to one and asked him why he was speaking to her mother like she is a dog’
The gendarme was shocked. he did not think anyone understood what they were saying but my children are FRENCH MINORS.
My daughter heard the gendarme say that if I did not hurry up and get out he would pick me up and throw me outside bodily.
THE GENDARME WITH HIS HAND ON HIS GUN TURNED TO MY 15 YEAR OLD FRENCH DAUGHTER AND YELLED AT HER SAYING;
‘YOU CAN LEAVE ST MARTIN AND DO YOU THINK THAT FRANCE SHOULD PAY YOUR TICKETS’
SHE IS FRENCH AND SO IS HER SISTER.. BOTH BORN ON ST MARTIN.
he then turned to me and angrily yelled at me with his face at my nose that I made him sick and GIVE ME YOUR KEYS GIVE ME YOUR KEYS NOW AH ITS TOO LATE THE LOCKS ARE BROKEN.
the man in the crumpled shirt yelled at me that he would have me arrested if I did not hurry up and get out.
we were thrown outside like animals.
only what we could grab in 10 minutes.
I had called a friend to come . She came with a journalist. When she came inside with her camera she was threatened with being arrested and the gendarmes pushed her outside., They advised the journalist to not use his photos.
We had nowhere to go.
Our friend took us to the Collectiivite/ Semsamar office where they had nothing for us so we were placed in a hotel room at 14h30.
NO LOGMENTS AVAILABLE..
that is where we still are.
The Juge Execution declared the eviction NULL AND INVALID and that ‘there is no eviction Mme Jenkins and on your behalf I have contacted Semsamar who have to relodge you’
tHEY NEVER HAVE.
17 February 2012 I was called by an ex neighbour to say that 4 men with a truck had stolen all our belongings with many things thrown in the garbage.
I called 17 who told me to go to the gendarmerie to file a complaint.
There a gendarme insulted me, laughed and refused to assist me and refused to take my complaint 17h20 17 February 2012..
I was told by two local police who were there to go to the Tribunal
I did and it was the Judge who again assisted me.
He told me to go to the Huissier and get a requete to break the door to see what was inside.
23 February 2012 that was done and everything was gone. It was a huge shock to me and again my daughter who was present as a witness.
I was told to go to the gendarmerie again with the Constat to file a complaint for Robbery and Destruction of property.
At the gendarmerie the same gendarme REFUSED to take the complaint.He sneered at me that he did not believe that the prosecutor even told me to come.
I called the other witness in front of him and told her the gendarme refused to take my complaint again. She told me he was not allowed to and suddenly he screamed out that he would do it. However he did not finish as he refused. he was so nasty and angry and rude and refused to complete the complaint as I was writing down what he was saying.
From that day 23 February 2012 until May 31 2012 the gendarmes at the gendarmerie ST MARTIN refused to assist me and they laughed every time I went there.
May 31 2012 the gendarme showed me in front if a witness who also confirmed that the signed statement from the Huissier Fontbonne was false.
he did not care.
he said if I did not go and take my belongings 04 June 2012 then the landlords had the rights to destroy everything.
I went to the huissier who told me the gendarmes were OBLIGED to be present. I called the gendarme and he yelled NOOO that he would not come.
04 June 2012 with the witness we discovered the appalling state of what was left after the four men had stolen and destroyed.
I contacted the gendarme who laughed at me and refused to come to witness it. he laughed and said: ‘Ha now you have to wait until August after my holidays. I am going on holidays’ he hung up.
I have not received any justice at all.
NOTHING
So now the Prosecutor who received all my statements and photos of everything has decided to use false statements to change everything and filed criminal charges against me..
I have exposed all they have done
So to cover up even more they now had created false criminal charges.
13 April 2013
the prosecutor has to be himself at the Cour de Cassation 11 June 2013 himself before the judges for providing false statements when he was a judge of Instruction on Reunion.
to this day not one of my complaints have been processed by the gendarmes.
that is deliberate.
This is a total Violation of all Human Rights and Rights of the Child
FORGED signatures.. FOUR
false accounts and lies have been used simply because I am not French
they have also abused my vulnerability and ignorance as a foreigner and even been denied a lawyer.
I went to a lawyer 17 September 2011 who took my original documents.including the original PV expulsion declared at illegal with the signatures of the gendarmes on it , this is also part of the corruption as I contacted the prosecutor to file a complaint to get my documents back from the lawyer and the prosecutor refused.
to this day we are in a hotel room. Three people since 13 July 2011
Everything we owned has been stolen or destroyed and damaged.
Last week we had the keys to an empty apartment given to me. NOTHING in it not even light fittings. They gave us three beds and three chairs so far.
The CAF de la Guadeloupe have cancelled all my payments without any reasons why.. 4086 euros in child support money, 1138 euros RSA 201 euros from December 2011 they took back in December 2012 and last week the Caf de la Guadeloupe took back 274,74 euros Prime NOEL given in December 2012 for no reasons.
The CAF de la Guadeloupe have discriminated against me since the birth of my children where they refused to give me a number.
The father of my children has family members or friends in all the administrations and the same huissier even lied to the Court of Appeal in October 2003 that NO Livret de Famille ever existed. That is a LIE.. 21 May 1999 the father of my children obtained the Livret de Famille with the mother’s page empty and with that he obtained CAF payments as well as all my medical refunds from 1995 to 006 and he never paid one cent. The sociale security always refuse to acknowledge that I am the only provider for my children
At 60 years old and as a result of all this I now have heart disease and need surgery.
Both daughters have suffered years of abuse by the CAF and the administrations but also the gendarmes.
They have suffered severely recently their school results have suffered..
I demand that the United Nations assists us now
11 April 2013 with FALSE fraudulent criminal charges I now have to go to the Criminal court in the biggest cover up by France and the corruption on St Martin.