Written by Tanya Terry
Featured photo: Leon El-Alamin, 1st Ward city councilman, a formerly incarcerated individual, sponsored the Fair Housing Ordinance. Photo provided by Councilman El-Alamin
On March 10, the Flint City Council passed the Fair Housing Ordinance, aimed at providing equal housing opportunities for justice-involved individuals.
Leon El-Alamin, 1st Ward city councilman, a formerly incarcerated individual, sponsored the bill and shared with the Courier his passion for the matter.
“I’m a returning citizen who served seven years with the Michigan Department of Corrections from 2003-2010,” he said. “Upon coming back into the Flint community, one of the many barriers I faced and others seemed to be facing upon return to the community is housing–affordable housing as well as safe housing. I think that’s very important to mention because when you come out of prison, you’re coming out with nothing, unless you have some family support. Many folks don’t even have that. That’s one of the reasons I created my organization. Once I created it and discovered the many barriers we were facing coming back into our community–with over half our population–I knew this was something that had to really reach the political levels and effect some change and politic change from there, not only from a grassroots level, but also from a government level.”
Council President Ladel Lewis originally sponsored the bill.
“When I got on council, I made some changes to the bill,” stated El-Alamin. “That’s the one that got passed. Councilperson Ladel Lewis did begin the process. It just didn’t get passed during that time.”
Previously, on February 10 of this year, the Courier reported the council approved the bill.
El-Alamin pointed out besides them having needed the mayor to sign the bill, the council is required to give the public an opportunity to speak and engage on bills before they are finalized.
“This final step was allowing the public to speak if they had any concerns before the bill goes into effect,” El-Alamin added. “We had a good turnout of returning citizens who came and spoke very highly and in favor of the bill on March 10.”
YWCA Advocate Stacy Barker Robinson is one of several returning citizens who spoke in favor of the ordinance at the city council meeting. Robinson is a successful survivor of domestic violence, sexual violence and human trafficking. She is one of the first women in the state of Michigan to ever have a mandatory life sentence totally vacated by the federal court. She spent 22 years, 3 months and 18 days incarcerated.
She shared with the Courier that in addition to the trauma of being imprisoned for killing an individual, which was later determined to have been an act of self-defense, she was sexually assaulted three times by three officers on three different occasions. Robinson participated in six major class action lawsuits while incarcerated, and she was victorious in every one.
However, Robinson’s struggle didn’t end when she was released.
“So many times, and I’ve even been subjected to it—when you’re filling out the application, it asks if you agree to a background check. It just crosses so many people out. Even if you had something frivolous like a shoplifting case, or you may have a gun case, home invasion-and you better not have a murder-because you are not getting in there,” Robinson said. “They are definitely judging you, and I just feel like the inequality was horrible.”
In 1986, Stacy Barker Robinson killed a man who was trying to rape her. She was eventually convicted of Murder I, and sentenced to Life. Her case later changed Michigan law, allowing women to require a judge to give proper instructions to a jury allowing that a woman has a right to use deadly force to prevent a sexual assault.
Robinson was recently appointed as the chairperson over the Committee for Housing for the NAACP Flint branch. She said she will continue to help fight for women and men who are in situations similar to the ones she was in.
Additionally, El-Alamin said he and other council members are working to get bills passed that not only provide fair housing, but better job opportunities for all Flint residents. One bill that was not passed but will be revised and brought back before council, in particular, he said, would require business owners receiving tax breaks to open businesses in underserved communities to hire a specific number of employees who live in the areas where their business is located.
