Zoe Colon New ED of Mamaroneck's Hispanic Resource Center

Zoe M. Colon, MPA, 30, former program manager at the Carver Center in Port Chester, has been appointed executive director of the Hispanic Resource Center (HRC), a 10-year-old immigrant social service agency in Mamaroneck.

Colon received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in urban studies and psychology from Barnard College and a Master of Public Administration degree, specializing in non-profit management and policy, from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service.

She succeeds Mariana Boneo, who resigned in March after three years as executive director, helping HRC achieve record financial support and a position as one of the leaders in the Mamaroneck/Larchmont social service community.

HRC served more than 1,500 clients in the past year. Its primary activities are traditional social services for individuals and families, educational classes and workshops that are occupationally helpful and aid in immigrant integration in the community, and special services for day laborers.

Severe & Deeply Rooted Housing Discrimination on Long Island

The advocacy group Education Research Advocacy Support to Eliminate Racism (ERASE Racism)'s latest report, The Racial Equity Report Card: Fair Housing on Long Island (pdf), concludes that African Americans and Latinos are still treated unfairly when searching for homes in Long Island (New York).

The discrimination, the report observes, is severe and deeply rooted in the highly segregated society that is Long Island.

A primary culprit? Real estate professionals.

The report found that some Long Island real estate agents routinely practice housing discrimination, despite efforts to crack down on it, including repeatedly steering African Americans and Latinos to rundown neighborhoods.

Seventy three percent (73%) of all housing race discrimination complaints on Long Island from 2000 to 2007 were filed against real estate professionals.

The report also found that local state and federal government agencies failed to act to stem housing discrimination based on race on Long Island.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under George W. Bush failed to oversee and monitor New York’s human rights cases.

The state’s Division of Human Rights under George Pataki dismissed most housing discrimination complaints. Between 1999 and 2007, 90 percent of the race-based fair housing complaints from Long Island received a “no probable cause” finding.

And local municipalities failed to take “any significant steps towards drafting and implementing community development plans that address inequities caused by racial segregation.”

Links:
Report: Housing discrimination on LI 'routine practice'
Not so fair housing on LI
Housing Barriers Persist on Long Island: New Study Reveals Housing Discrimination on
Long Island Is Severe and Deeply Rooted - report press release
The Racial Equity Report Card: Fair Housing on Long Island