Articles for Charlotte Keith

Sep 12

2018

Council presses mayor’s staff on fair housing

The Common Council has asked the Brown administration to account for its enforcement of – or, failure to enforce – the city’s fair housing law. Last week, the Council asked for a report on the city’s handling of housing discrimination complaints over the past three years. At a brief appearance before a Council committee Tuesday, Harold Cardwell, the city’s fair housing officer, agreed to provide that report within 30 days. The Council’s request, initiated by President Darius Pridgen, came after Investigative Post reported in July that City Hall has largely failed to enforce the fair housing law. The law[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Aug 1

2018

Council considers action on fair housing law

Buffalo’s fair housing law is supposed to prevent landlords from refusing to rent to someone simply because they rely on government assistance – like a Section 8 voucher – to help pay their rent. But that law, introduced in 2006, has gone largely unenforced, despite the more than two dozen discrimination complaints, most of them substantiated by undercover testing, that have been filed with the city. Last week, members of the Common Council said they would consider taking steps to ensure the law is enforced. “If we find out something is not being enforced or something is not staffed, it[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Jul 23

2018

Another ‘Billion project falling short on jobs

It was one of the first Buffalo Billion projects announced: a $50 million state investment in drug discovery company Albany Molecular Research Inc. which, Gov. Cuomo promised, would yield almost 200 spinoff jobs. Five years on, there’s little evidence those jobs have materialized. AMRI was responsible for creating only 55 jobs, a goal the company met earlier this year. The partner companies whose jobs the state had been counting towards the project’s overall goal of 25o jobs appear to employ only a few dozen people, rather than the 195 anticipated. And only a handful of those jobs seem to be directly[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Jul 17

2018

Keith discusses fair housing law on WBFO

Charlotte Keith talks to Jay Moran of WBFO on Press Pass about her recent story on Buffalo’s failure to enforce its fair housing law, which is supposed to protect the thousands of city residents who rely on Section 8 vouchers or other forms of government assistance to pay their rent.

Posted 6 years ago

Jul 5

2018

Vet a victim of discrimination – and inaction

The red brick apartment building on Crescent Avenue is two blocks from Delaware Park. Online listings show pictures of light-filled rooms with hardwood floors and decorative fireplaces. Reginald Holloway never got to see inside. In 2008, Holloway, a disabled Marine Corps veteran, was looking for a one-bedroom apartment in a peaceful neighborhood. He still struggled with flashbacks and nightmares from his military service and wanted to live somewhere quiet; doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs had diagnosed him with chronic post traumatic stress disorder. Holloway had a Section 8 voucher that would help him pay the rent and, in[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Jul 5

2018

Buffalo not enforcing its fair housing law

The heating in her apartment was acting up and her knee problems made carrying groceries up the stairs difficult. So, Gloria Adkins had gone with a friend to look at an apartment in Black Rock, planning to ask the landlord if he had anything else available. After he said he did, she steeled herself to ask the all-important question: Did he take Section 8, a federal program that helps poor people pay their rent? She remembers him saying no: too much hassle, too much paperwork. Most people would have let it go. But Adkins knew that refusing to rent[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Jun 26

2018

Buffalo Billion project kept hush-hush

Executives at LPCiminelli kept the state-affiliated nonprofit overseeing Buffalo Billion projects in the dark about a second project the company was awarded under a no-bid contract, a key witness testified Monday in the ongoing corruption trial. The company was chosen – quietly – to build a lab and office for biotech company Albany Molecular Research Inc. before LPCiminelli had even submitted their response to the Request for Proposals to build a factory for SolarCity that prosecutors said was rigged in their favor by Alain Kaloyeros and lobbyist Todd Howe. Kevin Schuler, a former LPCiminelli executive who has pled guilty to[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Jun 15

2018

What to watch for in Buffalo Billion trial

On Monday, Buffalo businessman Louis Ciminelli, will face trial in federal court in Manhattan, accused of taking part in a scheme to rig the bids for the construction work on the huge factory for SolarCity. Federal prosecutors say Ciminelli and other executives at his company worked with Alain Kaloyeros, the state official in charge of Gov. Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion initiative, to secretly tailor the bid specifications so their company would get the contract. Kaloyeros, who is also facing corruption charges, presided over a system of non-profit organizations that were exempt from the usual state oversight, even as they handed[...]

Posted 6 years ago