OTTAWA — The Putnam County Board of Commissioners is partnering with the Great Lakes Community Action Partnership to assess access to fair housing in the county, and that assessment is coming in the form of a public survey open to all county residents.
To complete the survey, go to https://bit.ly/3VeQn2j. Surveys will be accepted until June 1.
According to Ashley Siefker, the county’s grants and wages coordinator, this Fair Housing Analysis of Impediments is necessary in order to keep the county eligible to apply for related grant funds.
“An analysis of impediments is a document that we have to update every few years,” she said. “It’s kind of like a critical thinking document asking what we can do to help improve these issues. So the best way to know what’s out there is to try to get public input and get these surveys done.”
An impediment to fair housing takes place when an individual or family is denied access to housing due to race, color, nation of origin, religion, sex, familial status or disability, housing that they are otherwise able to afford.
“For example, if an apartment complex has a three-bedroom apartment available, and a family of five wants to rent that apartment but they get told no because they have kids, that’s a no-go,” Siefker said. “Or, ‘We don’t have any units that are available for someone who’s disabled, and we don’t have the means to make those accommodations.’”
Siefker noted that, while collecting updated information is important in future grant application processes, she has not heard of any access issues in the county in her work.
“What I get calls about most is tenant-landlord issues,” she said. “It’s, ‘This is wrong with my unit, and my landlord’s not fixing it,’ or, ‘They’re trying to evict me because I have an animal,’ or things of that nature.”
