Columbia task force releases fair housing survey results
The Columbia Fair Housing Task Force was scheduled to review recent survey results at its meeting Monday night.
According to the results, a majority of participants said they do not think there are enough housing options for protected classes of citizens, including African-Americans, people with disabilities, single mothers and veterans. Of those polled, 68 percent of participants answered “no,” 15.2 percent responded “yes” and 16.8 percent said “maybe.”
When asked to select the top three groups of people that have the highest housing needs, a majority of participants answered people with disabilities, followed by single mothers and elderly citizens.
A majority of people who responded to the survey said they have not experienced housing discrimination in Columbia. 17.2 percent said they had.
In another question, the survey asked if the city should be doing more to integrate the population: 55.6 percent of respondents said “yes,” 21.8 percent said “no” and 22.6 percent said “I don’t know.”
The survey also asked residents what the city should be doing to address fair housing. Some suggestions included providing training for landlords, providing more income-based housing, screening or surveying current renters and providing more community policing to reduce crime.
The survey responses can be found here.
*Editor’s note: Due to a source error, an earlier version of this article misstated the level at which people experienced discrimination.
