ACLU Protesting Pelham Housing Ordinance

[Syrinx]

PELHAM, Ala. -- The American Civil Liberties Union has raised constitutional questions about Pelham's new housing ordinance.

Only two people can share a bedroom in rental properties and resident's names will now be made available to police.

The ACLU argued people who aren't criminals are being targeted because they are renters and their privacy rights are being violated.

The Pelham ordinance started this week.

http://www.nbc13.com/gulfcoastwest/vtm/news.apx.-content-articles-VTM-2007-01-18-0020.html

I don't think it's any of the government's business how many people sleep in a bedroom, and I don't really understand the part about "resident's names will now be made available to police."

[Limelight]

1. Idiotic

I live in Birmingham which is mere minutes from Pelham. What possible business of the Pelham police is it how many people sleep in a bedroom?

Sounds like some redneck idiot out there is operating on old assbackwards beliefs... probably to the effect that gay people are so premiscuous and that homosexuality exquals being a pedophile... thus making you a sex offender (despite the fact that you ain't done a damn thing wrong legally) so the police should know.

God I hate tis town sometimes. I'm glad the ACLU is hopping onto what is a completely assinine law, but in the mean time for anyone renting in Pelham, just tell them what the hell you want about who's sleeping in your bedroom. I don't know how the hell they think they'll ever find out withough surveilance and kicking in the door to your bedroom which they'd never get away with. And frankly I would hope the vast majority of property owners would know better than to even ask that question of a potential renter.

Unbelievable.

[Syrinx]

2. I don't think it has anything to do with sex

For some reason, they don't want too many people sharing a home. I don't know why. The bedroom thing is just a way to set a limit on how many people a home will "hold."

If I'm a homeowner, or if I pay my rent, I would think it's my right to share my home with as many people as I want. Within reason, of course.

I don't really understand the ordinance or the motivation behind it.

[trof]

3. Not sex. Hispanics/'illegal' aliens.

That's who this is aimed at.

The conventional 'wisdom' is that "Them Mescans" will pack a dozen people into a two bedroom house.
And since that's not how 'we' live, it's somehow bad.

It seems to me that the Mexicans and Centrl Americans who are now living here come from a very different cultural background. Much more communal, for one thing. Not the same criteria for 'personal space' that we may have. Compared to the surroundings and living conditions many of them have come from, a two bedroom house with a working heating/cooling system and a roof that doesn't leak might seek positively palatial to them.

Housing costs are so high here on the gulf coast that's the only way these low paid workers can survive.
Just my opinion.

[southpaw]

6. Wow... we've got Syrinx and now Limelight...

Both in Alabama, no less.

Maybe I'll change my screen name to Tom Sawyer... or maybe Hemispheres!

Anyway... welcome to DU, Limelight. You may have been around for a while, but this is the first time I've run into you... so welcome!

[Syrinx]

7. ha!

That went right over my head!

[nealmhughes]

4. None of the above: they have had it for years in various townships on Long Island.

It is a real estate investor's scenario: limit the number of housing units by zoning, then limit how many can live in each properly zoned unit. The home owners in suburbia buy into it, screeching that old tired phrase "My property values!" ad infin. and so the local counties, towns, and counties do what the "taxpayers" want.
It's also on the books in Tuscaloosa as well as no couches or TVs on the front porches, but ornamental wrought iron or wicker perfectly fine, or a camaflogue folding chair...$75 fine if you move a couch outside on the porch for a party and don't bring it back in...or if they see you outside on it during...never mind the broken glass covering the streets or cars parking on your front lawn or the sidewalk, or blocking your car in the drive with a sign and chain saying "Active driveway" on game days.

Middle class provincial people with parochial middle class provincial agendas and mindsets.

As a friend from Holland once said on the way back to Tuscaloosa from the Bham airport: "This would make a hell of a city, all those roads and buildings..."

[Syrinx]

5. this makes sense to me

Although, in a nod to trof, it seems that I began hearing about these kinds of ordinances in Alabama around the same time that Mexican immigrants starting becoming highly visible. In the last decade or so, the number of Mexicans in the area has skyrocketed, coinciding roughly with discussions of such residency limits. I would prefer to think that this relationship isn't causal, but just a coincidence that can be blamed on the assholes at Sealy, etc. ;)

And, yes, the Tuscaloosa City Council really pisses me off. They've started to think of themselves as little mini-dictators. Perhaps they will join the cause to Save The Strip, to redeem themselves, but I surely doubt it.

[Daveparts]

8. Its about Zoning

In almost every rental agreement is a clause about the number of occupants allowed in the dwelling. An occupant is defined by whether or not you sleep there or not.The normal number per bedroom is two adults or three children. The decline of property is directly connected
to the number of occupants.

Slums are created by too many people in too small a building.