Crowded Home Measure Called Racist
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Julie Wolfe reports


Provided By: The Associated Press
Last Modified: 7/25/2007 10:44:33 AM

ATLANTA (AP) -- A Metro Atlanta county commission passed a code amendment Tuesday night to limit how many adults live in a house and how many cars can be parked outside it -- one of two proposals viewed by immigrant rights groups as anti-immigrant legislation.

The Cobb County Commission approved the housing restrictions by a 5-0 vote but delayed action on an ordinance governing on how day laborers can be hired until next month's meeting.

The housing law requires that each adult living in a house has at least 390 square feet of building space, up from the current minimum of 50 square feet. It would also prohibit more than two unrelated adults and their children or grandchildren from living there. It would define family as parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren, brothers and sisters.

Supporters say it's needed to curb the eyesore of overcrowded houses, with yards full of cars, that drive down property values. But immigrant rights group say it's yet another attempt to make life impossible for a booming community of immigrants, who often have extended families and limited resources.

"It's all part of a campaign to harass the immigrant population," said Elise Shore, the regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who planned to present the group's opposition at the board meeting.

Carolyn Warner, a resident of east Cobb County, has been trying to get the county to crack down on one of her neighbors, who she says has had as many as 15 people living in her 1,500-square-foot home two blocks away.

Warner says her neighbor's being Mexican has nothing to do with her reporting her to Cobb authorities in November.

"This is not an issue of nationality, it's just 'clean up your yards,"' Warner said. "How can people start a new life in this country in the circumstances that they live in?"

Warner said she first called the county's zoning enforcement office after seeing 15 young men "wandering around" the house and 15 vehicles parked nearby. She said the woman in the house was fined repeatedly over illegally parked vehicles.

Zugey Arzate says she has seven to eight family members living with her, which is not crowded for her house.

"There are not too many people in my house," she said in a telephone interview, speaking in Spanish.

Going beyond existing code violations by trying to regulate what makes a family and who can live in a house is dangerous, immigrant rights advocates said.

"It's big government telling families who should be living in their homes," said Jerry Gonzalez of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials. "It should be alarming to all."

The amendment on day laborers would make it illegal to both hire day laborers and seek employment as day laborers on the streets, sidewalks, parking lots, public property or public rights of way in unincorporated Cobb County.


(Copyright © 2007, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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