Alabama Republican Liberty Caucus

A new approach to an ignored civil liberties issue in Alabama

Racial minorities and the socio-economically disadvantaged are the people most likely to be taken advantage of during eminent domain issues.

ALRLC Secretary Shana Kluck is also a member of the State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.  They will be conducting a panel in Montgomery on Wednesday to investigate the “Civil Rights Implications of Eminent Domain Policies and Practices in Alabama.”  The event is open to the public. If you may be interested in attending, additional information is available here.

University of Alabama history professor David Beito chairs the committee.  His op-ed in the Tuscaloosa News highlights how serious the problem truly is.  Here’s but one of the cases which will be reviewed by the upcoming U.S. Commission of Civil Rights panel:

For almost five years, [Jim Peera] has fought a pitched battle with City Hall over his plan to renovate a strategic parcel of 121 apartments in the heart of the Rosa Parks Community and rent them to low-income senior citizens. Montgomery has a multimillion dollar development plan for his 8-acre site and is using ‘blight’ to condemn and demolish it.

Peera has withstood multiple setbacks on his investment, including unfounded criminal charges by the city and mysterious fires on his solid block structures. He has repeatedly tried to sell to or partner with the city for a much needed affordable housing development, but it has rebuffed him.

‘They’re used to forcing black folks to give their properties up via imposing hefty demolition liens, as opposed to buying land at fair market value’ he said.

Most recently, the city tried to further devalue Peera’s property by reducing the density from ‘multifamily’ to single family, thus making it impossible to provide affordable low-income housing. Though Peera won in two courts, local bureaucrats, much like they are doing with McCall, meet his legal victories with appeals and other delays.

Peera, who had to flee from his native East Africa after Idi Amin expelled its Asian population, does not easily intimidate and is extremely determined to fight property abuse in Alabama. He is trying to mobilize other Montgomery property owners who face the same plight. Through the state’s freedom of information act, he has obtained the names of over several hundred individuals, mostly from minority neighborhoods, who have had their homes summarily demolished under the blight law.

The former owners have related to him a litany of arbitrary mistreatment, but most were too poor or lacked the necessary information to fight back against the city. ‘What this City Hall is doing is criminal towards blacks and property owners, and it must be stopped’ Peera said.