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- Latest news item posted on 02/08/2010 at 10:18 AM
- Technical problems: Our upgrade to a newer version of ColdFusion has resulted in some bugs that will have to be worked out. Thank you for your patience.
- Submit a job announcement, news item, press release or event info.
- 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!)
If you don't yet subscribe to Fair Housing-Fair Lending, visit Equitas Media to get your subscription.
- 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!
Elevator fix to strand elderly couple in aptartment
(TAMARAC, Fla., Feb. 08, 2010)
-- An elderly couple with disabilities said they will be trapped in their Tamarac apartment beginning Monday because of an elevator repair, WPLG-TV in Miami reported.
Murray Kandel, 97, uses a walker, and his 88-year-old wife, Shirley, uses a wheelchair. The couple live in a second-floor apartment.
Beginning Monday, the only elevator in their building will be taken out of service for up to six weeks as the building association replaces the old elevator.
"We rely on it daily," Murray Kandel said.
The Kandels said the property manager told them to stock up and hunker down.
FULL STORY at fox5vegas.com
Two Bronx communities are accused of preventing blacks from buying homes
(NEW YORK, Feb. 04, 2010)
-- The people of Edgewater Park have described their home as a Shangri-La, a tightly knit and idyllic community sitting on Long Island Sound in a hidden pocket of the Bronx.
But according to a new lawsuit, not everyone is welcome in this version of paradise.
On Thursday, the Fair Housing Justice Center, a nonprofit group, sued Edgewater Park, its nearby sister community, Silver Beach Gardens, and one of its former longtime residents, the Realtor Amelia Lewis, claiming racial discrimination.
The suit, filed in United States District Court in Manhattan, sprang from an investigation the housing group conducted in September and October 2009, in which a white couple and an African-American couple inquired about buying homes in the communities. Both were “test” couples who worked for the housing group and said they were looking for homes priced below $300,000.
FULL STORY at nytimes.com
Housing discrimination still legal in VA?
(RICHMOND, Va, Feb. 03, 2010)
-- Housing discrimination holdovers from the 1960s remain on the books in Virginia, and there's legislation in the works to change that. Amy Nelson, director of systemic investigations and enforcement for the group Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, says property owners with three or fewer single-family homes are currently exempt from most of the anti-discrimination provisions of Virginia's Fair Housing laws.
Therefore, she says, it is still technically legal for them to discriminate against potential renters or buyers based on sex, religion, national origin, age, or having children or a disability.
"Somebody could say, 'I'm not going to rent to you because you have kids,' or 'because you're Hispanic,' or 'because you are white.' They could legally do that, in this exempt type of property."
FULL STORY at publicnewsservice.org
Coldwell Banker franchisee settles housing discrimination suit
(JONESBORO, Ga., Feb. 03, 2010)
-- A Jonesboro-based Coldwell Banker franchisee and one of its former agents will pay $160,000 to settle a federal housing discrimination case.
The suit against Coldwell Banker Joe T. Lane Realty Inc. and former agent Rodney Lee Foreman stems from a series of tests the National Fair Housing Alliance conducted in 2003 and 2004 to see if Foreman, and other agents, were steering white home buyers to white neighborhoods and blacks to predominantly black areas.
The National Fair Housing Alliance, based in Washington, D.C., sent white and black "mystery shoppers" to the real estate firm to see if a pattern of racial steering existed.
According to the complaint, Foreman directed white shoppers to neighborhoods where Caucasians were the majority and did the same for blacks.
FULL STORY at ajc.com
Westchester County releases implementation plan for housing settlement
(NEW YORK, Feb. 02, 2010)
-- Westchester County has submitted its implementation plan to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and to the federal monitor overseeing the county’s compliance with last year’s settlement of the fair and affordable housing lawsuit.
The plan details the framework for complying with the settlement entered into by former County Executive Andrew Spano and approved by a majority of the Board of Legislators. The settlement requires the county to build 750 units of new housing in 31 communities and to undertake marketing that ensures outreach to racially and ethnically diverse households.
The implementation plan does not specifically detail where the housing will be built – just the process on how decisions will be made. As required by the settlement, the plan also includes tools – such as new policies and marketing initiatives – to assist the county in promoting fair and affordable housing opportunities within Westchester.
The document and its many attachments can be found on the county’s Web site at: www.westchestergov.com/housingsettlement .
FULL STORY at acorn-online.com
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