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- Latest news item posted on 11/20/2008 at 07:21 PM
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NCRC files civil rights complaint against Fitch and Moody's
(WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2008)
-- The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) filed a
discrimination complaint today with the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban
Development (HUD) Office of Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity against two of the
nation’s leading credit rating agencies. The complaint seeks to obtain relief for
consumers and communities harmed by Fitch Inc. (“Fitch”) and Moody’s Investors
Service’s (‘Moody’s”) allegedly discriminatory, negligent, and culpable behavior that
contributed to crises in the mortgage and credit markets.
NCRC alleges that the rating agencies substantially contributed to the housing and
foreclosure crisis in African-American and Latino communities by making public
misrepresentations about the soundness and reliability of subprime securities’ ratings.
More than five million homeowners will lose their homes between 2008 and 2010,
according to Moody’s Economy.com. Fitch and Moody’s failures harmed the
communities served by the NCRC, the complaint states, because they fueled imprudent
mortgage lending and irresponsible secondary market purchases of the loans contributing
to high default and foreclosure rates in violation of the Federal Fair Housing Act. As a
result of the foreclosure crisis, $164-200 billion of wealth will be lost from minority
communities, according to estimates by United for a Fair Economy.
PRESS RELEASE by NCRC (PDF)
Court overturns judgment in discrimination case
(SPOKANE, Wa., Nov. 20, 2008)
-- An appeals court has overturned a judgment against a property management company and its former employee in a Spokane discrimination case brought by Russian immigrants who exposed a bribery scheme that preyed on poor people seeking affordable housing.
The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a 2007 decision in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington in a lawsuit brought by the immigrants against Bowen Property Management of Portland and the company’s general manager of operations, John Ballas.
Plaintiffs Natalya Prach, Anatoliy Tsiribko, Andrey Samolovov and Ivan Kriger had exposed a bribery scheme in 2000 in which Kerrey Lemons, the manager of Westfall Village Apartments, 3724 N. Cook St., in Spokane, charged Russian immigrants a “fee” of $100 per bedroom to place their names at the top of a waiting list for apartments, according to court records. The fee was not charged to non-Russians, and proceeds were not passed along to Lemons’ employer, Bowen Property Management.
FULL STORY in The Spokesman-Review
JFK mandates end to housing discrimination, Nov. 20, 1962
(WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2008)
-- On this day in 1962, President John F. Kennedy issued an executive order mandating an end to housing discrimination. The presidential order, which came in the midst of an upsurge in the civil rights movement, banned federally funded housing agencies from denying mortgages to any person based on race, color, creed or national origin.
When Kennedy took office in 1961, he vowed to do more for civil rights. In issuing his order, the president branded discrimination in federally funded housing agencies unfair, unjust and inconsistent with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as ordained in the Declaration of Independence. He bemoaned the disgraceful, substandard, unsafe and unsanitary housing in which many African-Americans and other minorities were forced to live.
Kennedy acted at a time when many black families were relegated to living in impoverished rural areas or in overcrowded and underserviced inner-city ghettos. The notion of owning a house in the suburbs, with their superior school systems, or even an apartment in a low-crime neighborhood, remained out of reach for many minority families because some federally funded lending agencies systematically refused to extend home loans to minorities.
FULL STORY by Politico
Obama team is warned that HUD needs work
(WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2008)
-- The Obama administration will soon inherit a $35 billion federal housing agency that was a weak backbencher during the housing crisis and moved too late to do much to keep millions of families from going into foreclosure.
Beyond the pressing crisis, the Department of Housing and Urban Development also has dramatically retreated in the past eight years from its mission of fostering affordable housing. Pushing homeownership has been the agency's top priority under the Bush administration, and HUD's budget for public housing for low-income families has been cut year after year.
In a pre-election letter sent to HUD employees through their union, Barack Obama wrote: "As we tackle the effects of the current fiscal crisis on Americans, HUD must be part of the solution. The Department's mission -- to promote affordable quality housing and community development available to all without discrimination -- is critical to the well-being of millions of working families."
FULL STORY in The Washington Post
Ariz. AG goes after mobile home park
(MESA, Ariz., Nov. 20, 2008)
-- Operators for a mobile home park broke housing and civil rights laws when they booted an old couple without taking the wife’s mental disorder into consideration, according to a recent lawsuit.
The complaint from the Arizona Attorney General’s Office claims Mesa Village Mobile Home Park near Main Street and Lindsey Road and two of its previous tenants, Herb and Ella Loy Boyd. The state is suing the park on their behalf.
According to the complaint, the Boyds started renting a unit in the park in May 2001. Ella Boyd has a mental impairment that does not allow her to care for herself.
View Larger MapOn March 23, she stopped taking her medication, according to the complaint. When the neighbors placed concrete dividers between their driveway and the Boyds’ driveway, she became angry and complained to the manager. The discussion ended in an argument, with Mesa Police removing Ella Boyd from the premises.
FULL STORY in The Zonie Report
Bayou La Batre, Ala., sued by developer
(BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala., Nov. 18, 2008)
-- A housing developer has filed a lawsuit against the city of Bayou La Batre claiming that the City Council violated federal housing law when it blocked a proposed rental home subdivision from being built.
Andrew Rutens, Bayou La Batre's attorney, said the city's decisions made on the property were proper and appropriate.
"Legacy Park was requesting extraordinary changes to this type of residential property, and the factors used by the decision-makers were appropriate under the circumstances," Rutens said. "There were no violations of any federal laws or protection."
FULL STORY in The Mobile Press-Register
Testing reveals racial steering in rental market
(WATERLOO, Iowa, Nov. 16, 2008)
-- Testing to determine if landlords discriminated based on a tenant's family status appeared to uncover more trouble with race in Waterloo's rental housing market.
The Iowa Civil Rights Commission last week released the results of a study conducted in Waterloo last April, which involved investigators posing as renters contacting 20 randomly selected housing units. Six of those tests showed evidence of possible discrimination: one case based on familial status; one based on familial status and race; and four possible discrimination cases base on race.
"Although the tests were solely designed to determine whether familial status would be a factor or consideration in the way particular property owners or managers responded to inquiries regarding their residential rental units, results from five of the tests indicated possible racial steering," the commission said in a news release.
The testing was done at the invitation of the Waterloo Human Rights Commission in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Federal Fair Housing Act, which was adopted in 1968 to prohibit housing discrimination based on race, color, religion and national origin.
FULL STORY in The WFC Courier
Dogs and autism
(NEW YORK, Nov. 14, 2008)
-- A legal battle in New York City highlights the healing power of dogs for children with autism and Asperger’s syndrome.
Manhattan federal prosecutors have accused the owners of an Upper East Side residence of discriminating against 11-year-old Aaron Schein by preventing him from having a dog, The New York Daily News reports. Aaron has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, often considered a high-functioning form of autism, and his doctors believe a service dog will relieve anxiety and help him cope with the disorder. People with Asperger’s usually have average or above-average intelligence, but they lack the intuitive ability to read social cues and find it difficult to make friends and form relationships.
According to the newspaper, a lawsuit claims the building owners violated the Fair Housing Act by imposing unreasonable demands on Aaron’s parents before allowing a dog.
FULL STORY in The New York Times
Mayor, lawyers, meet over lender lawsuit
(BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Nov. 14, 2008)
-- Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford and city attorneys this morning met with lawyers he said filed an unauthorized lawsuit against mortgage lenders on the city's behalf.
"I'm not satisfied with any of the answers they gave me," Langford said after the meeting. "They didn't communicate with the mayor's office and we were the only ones who could authorize it."
Langford said he will decide by Monday whether the city will continue the lawsuit, change law firms, drop the case, or negotiate with mortgage companies outside the courtroom on behalf of former homeowners.
"Our city attorneys will now review all of the information and advise me how to proceed from here," he said.
FULL STORY in The Birmingham News
DOJ settles race discrimination complaint
(WASHINGTON, Nov. 14, 2008)
-- WASHINGTON - The Justice Department today announced it has reached a settlement of up to $170,000 resolving its lawsuit against the owners and managers of Regent Court Apartments in Roseville, Mich., who allegedly discriminated against African-Americans seeking to rent apartments at the complex. The complaint alleged that Regent Court Apartments, LLC and Donna Harrison, the leasing manager, engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against African-American applicants for tenancy.
The Justice Department's lawsuit, which was handled jointly by attorneys from the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, was filed in January 2008, based upon evidence developed by Operation Home Sweet Home, a concentrated initiative to expose and eliminate housing discrimination in America. Operation Home Sweet Home utilizes the Department’s fair housing testing program where individuals pose as renters for purposes of gathering information about possible discriminatory practices. The Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit, a private fair housing organization, assisted with the testing pursuant to a contract with the Justice Department.
PRESS RELEASE by the Department of Justice
Study: 30% of Waterloo landlords discriminated in tests
(WATERLOO, Iowa, Nov. 13, 2008)
-- A civil rights study released today says that 30 percent of randomly-selected rental units in Waterloo showed evidence of discrimination.
The study from the Iowa Civil Rights Commission randomly selected 20 housing rental units in Waterloo in April to determine if managers or owners were acting in compliance with state and federal fair housing laws.
Six of the 20 indicated evidence of possible discrimination. Of those, one was based on familial status, such as denying housing to an unwed mother; one was based on familial status and race while four indicated possible discrimination based solely upon race.
FULL STORY in The Des Moines Register
Rights advocate feels 'vindicated'
(BALTIMORE, Md., Nov. 13, 2008)
-- For Granville "Sonny" Wehland, the election of Barack Obama vindicated his efforts in the name of civil rights four decades ago.
In the 1960s, Wehland worked with the late Sen. James Clark Jr. to garner support for anti-discrimination legislation that would allow blacks to enter public places in Maryland. A lifelong Democrat and ardent Obama supporter, Wehland said he didn't understand then - just as he can't comprehend now - why anyone cared about the color of someone's skin.
"Obama wasn't the right minority for the job - he was the right candidate," the 74-year-old Howard County native said.
Wehland's conclusion that racial differences are inconsequential dates to boyhood, when he was growing up on farmland that Snowden River Parkway now traverses. He recalls the blacks who worked on his family's 60 acres, picking tomatoes and string beans.
FULL STORY in The Baltimore Sun
Project to help homeless falters
(KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Nov. 13, 2008)
-- An attempt to tie public funding to an agreement to seek no more government money for housing units for homeless people near downtown has been put off until January after Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale vetoed the effort.
The Knox County Commission recently approved a $250,000 appropriation to the Volunteer Ministry Center, which is trying to convert the old 5th Avenue Motel building into a supportive housing facility named Minvilla Manor. The facility is meant to provide stable housing for chronically homeless people, most of whom are afflicted by severe mental or physical disabilities.
FULL STORY in The Knoxville News Sentinel
Fair housing suit filed in New Orleans
(NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 13, 2008)
-- Today civil rights and fair housing groups filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development and the Louisiana Recovery Authority. The suit alleges that the Road Home, Louisiana's Hurricane Katrina recovery program, discriminates against African-American homeowners in New Orleans.
The Road Home, an $11 billion federally-funded program, is the largest housing redevelopment program in U.S. history. The suit is being filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of five individuals representing a class of more than 20,000 African-American homeowners and two fair housing organizations, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center and the National Fair Housing Alliance.
"Forty years after the passage of the federal Fair Housing Act, residential segregation still permeates New Orleans," said James Perry, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center. "Homes in communities of color still have lower values than those in white communities even when the condition, style and quality of the homes are comparable. Louisiana's program builds on this history of discrimination. Only when housing opportunities are created for all residents of New Orleans will our recovery truly be successful."
According to Cohen Milstein's Joseph M. Sellers, head of the firm's Civil Rights and Employment Practice, "HUD and Louisiana have perpetrated a cruel hoax on African-American victims of the Katrina and Rita hurricanes by offering assistance that Congress intended would permit them to rebuild their destroyed homes but which falls far short of its noble promise by linking it to the depressed values of their pre-storm segregated housing rather than to the cost of reconstruction."
Red Bank, fair housing group reach settlement on affordable housing
(RED BANK, N.J., Nov. 11, 2008)
-- Borough officials and the Fair Share Housing Center of Cherry Hill settled their differences about whether Red Bank is meeting state mandates to ensure that affordable housing is built when market-rate developments are approved.
Mayor Pasquale "Pat" Menna announced the agreement at Monday's council meeting, two days before both sides were scheduled to argue the case before the state Council on Affordable Housing in Trenton.
On Oct. 29, the COAH board unanimously voted to temporarily restrict local approval of development or redevelopment, meaning new developments had to the approved by COAH. The agreement between Red Bank and the center will return approval power to the borough for new developments. Borough officials agreed that they will follow state guidelines that require 20 percent of the units of a market rate development to be earmarked for affordable housing.
FULL STORY at APP.com
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