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- Latest news item posted on 10/09/2008 at 06:27 AM
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- Please welcome our new partner, the Fair Housing Council of Suburban Philadelphia.
- New! We have the full text of cases announced in the newly revived Fair Housing-Fair Lending bulletin. If you are a subscriber to our case database, you can just enter the FH-FL case number to view it. (If you're not, you should be!)
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- Attention fair housing agencies: Our agency finder now allows us to tell web site users your service area. Please feel free to contact us so that we can add that information to your record. If we don't have you in our agency finder yet, please use the contact form to tell us about you!
Fair housing audit reveals increased number of housing discrimination cases
(RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 08, 2008)
-- Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, Inc. (HOME) Wednesday released its findings of a fair housing audit conducted over the past year. The audit, which evaluated treatment in the search for housing based on race, disability, and families with children, found that all seven cities in the Hampton Roads area had high levels of racial discrimination and barriers to access for people with disabilities.
Testing was conducted in a controlled investigation in which individuals with specific, similar profiles inquired about the availability of a housing unit and documented the treatment and answers received. The findings of this audit identified the existence or application of various policies or practices which revealed discrimination and inequality of treatment based on the tester's race, disability, and familial status.
A total of 165 tests conducted from March 2007 to August 2008 revealed discriminatory housing practices in all seven cities of the Hampton Roads region.
FULL STORY by NewsChannel 3
Grant money goof could saddle Ft. Wayne
(FT. WAYNE, Ind., Oct. 08, 2008)
-- Fort Wayne violated federal law in how it handled grant money, which could jeopardize future federal grants, according to the chairman of the Metropolitan Human Relations Commission.
Lockwood Marine, commission chairman, told the City Council on Tuesday the commission could lose its money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission because federal grants were mixed with local tax dollars.
“We are concerned that our federal funds are in serious jeopardy due to the handling and accounting for federal funds by the city controller’s office,” he said.
Metro’s board and director investigate discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodation and education. They look into cases of bias based on gender, race, religion, disability, ancestry, national origin, place of birth and sexual orientation.
FULL STORY in The Journal-Gazette
Feds slam landlord’s pet policy
(ST. HELEN'S, Ore., Oct. 08, 2008)
-- A St. Helens landlord is being sued in U.S. district court for refusing to allow a disabled tenant access to a companion animal.
Ronald A. Lucas, who owns a 15-apartment complex at 1691 Old Portland Road in St. Helens, has been accused of violating the federal Fair Housing Act after telling a mentally disabled tenant she could not have a companion dog.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a federal civil suit against Lucas on Sept. 24 on behalf of the tenant, Marilyn Dirks.
FULL STORY in The South County Spotlight
Housing community sued for age bias
(WAREHAM, Mass., Oct. 08, 2008)
-- Attorney General Martha Coakley's office is suing the owner of Swift's Beach Manufactured Home Community, charging housing discrimination and violation of consumer protection laws for allegedly preventing a homeowner from selling his home to prospective buyers younger than 55 and for attempting to impose an unauthorized over-55 age requirement on park occupants.
The complaint was filed in Plymouth Superior Court after the homeowner was not allowed to sell his manufactured home to buyers who are younger than 55, according to a press release. Although the man owns the home, he rents the lot on which it is located and must get approval from the Swift's Beach community's landowner before selling. The community allegedly claimed that the community rules had changed to limit occupancy to residents over 55.
According to the complaint, however, this rule violates consumer protection laws, as the state Department of Housing and Community Development denied Swift's Beach community's request to become an age-restricted park in September 2007. According to the DHCD, a manufactured home park can be age-restricted only if that was the intent from the park's inception. To become age-restricted later is a violation of Massachusetts General Laws statute 151B, an anti-discrimination statute, according to Phil Hailer, DHCD spokesman.
FULL STORY in The Standard Times
HUD charges Alabama landlords with discrimination
(TALLASSEE, Ala., Oct. 07, 2008)
-- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Tuesday announced that it has charged two Tallassee landlords with violating the Fair Housing Act for allegedly forcing white tenants to move out of their house after the owners saw the couple talking with black neighbors in their front yard.
In February 2008, Melissa Jones, her fiancé and their child moved into a property owned by Wilber and Julie Williams, according to a HUD news release.
While Jones’ black neighbors were visiting with her in the front yard, the Williamses drove by and witnessed the gathering, the release states. According to the HUD charge, Julie Williams intimidated and coerced Jones during subsequent phone calls.
Illegal immigration lawsuit becomes civil rights battle
(PLAINFIELD, N.J., Oct. 07, 2008)
-- A coalition of nearly a dozen local, state and national civil rights and immigration advocacy groups jointly have filed an amicus brief to Newark's U.S. District Court in support of a motion to dismiss four of eight counts in an illegal immigration-based lawsuit against Connolly Properties, a Plainfield-based real estate company.
The coalition consists of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigration Rights Project, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, the Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the law firm of Fried Frank Harris Shriver and Jacobson, LLP, the New Jersey Institute For Social Justice, the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network, the Latino Leadership Alliance Of New Jersey, the Farmworker Support Committee, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and The Latin American Legal Defense And Education Fund.
"We are very pleased to be joined by the prominent organizations in this group with their diverse civil rights and humanitarian interests," said David Connolly, president of Connolly Properties, in a news release issued yesterday. "Its members and their records of fighting for civil rights are well-known."
FULL STORY in The Courier News
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