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- Latest news item posted on 05/16/2012 at 08:12 AM
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Co-op City docked $85,000 for not allowing residents to keep emotional-support dogs in their apartments
(BRONX, N.Y., May 16, 2012)
-- Federal housing regulators are giving Co-op City a ruff time for not allowing residents to keep emotional support dogs.
RiverBay Corp., the company that manages the sprawling Bronx complex, was docked more than $85,000 this month for denying two clinically depressed residents their pets as treatment.
"Before I got my dog, I would come home and just go to bed," said Kisha Maddox, owner of JoeJoe, a Maltese. "My life was nothing. Now I love to come home and walk JoeJoe in the community."
Co-op City has a strict 'no pets' policy. But Alexander Fernandez, an administrative law judge, ruled May 7 that RiverBay violated the Fair Housing Act when it refused to make an exception for the owner of Figgy Newton, a Chihuahua-Whippet mix.
FULL STORY at nydailynews.com
3 women sue White Plains YWCA staffers, claim civil rights abuse
(WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., May 15, 2012)
-- Three former YWCA residents are accusing staffers of violating their civil rights and retaliating against them when they complained about alleged abuses.
Barbara Griffiths, Judy Johnson and Margaret Wall accused Lori Stanlick, the YWCA’s associate executive director of housing and clinical services, and other staffers of race, national origin, disability and income-source discrimination in three federal civil rights lawsuits filed by the former residents. All three women’s court filings include determinations from the Westchester County Human Rights Commission indicating that they have probable cause to sue based on the commission’s conclusion that the YWCA staff violated the county’s Fair Housing Law.
Barbara Griffiths, 63, lived at the YWCA residence at 69 N. Broadway from 1999 to 2010 and she claims that Stanlick would not allow her to move into a nonsmoking section of the residence because of her race and Jamaican background.
“I saw it as a failure to be thoughtful about us as single, struggling women who needed the support of this organization,” Griffiths said Monday about her and her former neighbors’ complaints.
FULL STORY at lohud.com
Few housing bias complaints documented in Clark County
(SPRINGFIELD, Ohio., May 14, 2012)
-- In the past five years, 18 charges of illegal housing discrimination in Clark County were substantiated by investigations.
But sources disagree about whether discrimination here is as widespread as federal estimates suggest it is nationally.
Discrimination is more than a question of race. In Clark County, for example, most recorded cases of discrimination involve physical or mental disability.
According to studies by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, fair housing complaints — of which there were 34 in Clark County the past five years — represent about one percent of actual discrimination.
FULL STORY at springfieldnewssun.com
Boynton Beach to pay $100,000 for disabilities act violations
(BOYNTON BEACH, Fla., May 14, 2012)
-- The city will spend $100,135 to come into compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, commissioners will hear Tuesday night .
A review last summer uncovered scores of cases where the federal government concluded the city didn't comply with federal rules both in the design of the city hall complex and the way the city helps people take advantage of federal programs.
They ranged from not providing paperwork in other languages to having ramps and counters handicapped people couldn't reach, according to a staff memo proposing the commission, at Tuesday night's regular meeting, authorize a "voluntary compliance agreement" with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's office of Fair Housing and Economic Opportunity.
FULL STORY at palmbeachpost.com
Absecon plans affordable housing as developer seeks to build
(ABESCON, N.J., May 12, 2012)
-- Absecon is working on a plan to comply with state law regarding affordable housing developments.
The city is developing a housing element and fair share plan years after the original court case passed requiring towns to have a plan to accommodate affordable housing, Absecon Administrator Terry Dolan said.
The state’s Council on Affordable Housing was formed in 1985 by the implementation of the Fair Housing Act, which followed several court decisions.
The city was required to develop a plan to allow for the building of affordable homes, but the city had decided to wait because the law was constantly a target of law suits and could have changed, Dolan said. Gov. Chris Christie had sought to abolish the council last year but a state Appellate Court decision in March determined that would not be permitted.
FULL STORY at pressofatlanticcity.com
Housing discrimination complaint with Nebraska landlord to be settled by HUD
(WASHINGTON, May 11, 2012)
-- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today that it has reached a $22,500 settlement agreement with the owner and managers of at Cheyenne Villa Apartments, a 56-unit, HUD-assisted townhome complex in Sydney, Nebraska. The settlement resolves a complaint filed by a resident who uses a wheelchair and walker, who alleged that management the development failed to accommodate her request to transfer to the first available ground-floor unit. The resident also claimed that management denied requests for a parking space and a ramp to ease her access to her unit.
The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to refuse to make reasonable accommodations that would allow a person with a disability to fully enjoy her home. Similarly, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits providers of federally-assisted housing from denying housing to or discriminating against persons with disabilities.
“Persons with disabilities aren’t asking for special treatment when they request reasonable accommodations,” said John Trasviña, HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. “Ground-floor rooms, designated parking spaces, and ramps may be necessary for persons with disabilities to conduct everyday activities and gain independence in their daily living. HUD is committed to ensuring that housing providers, federally-assisted and otherwise, live up to their obligation to grant reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities when they are needed.”
Westchester housing settlement: Feds hold up millions more in funds, cite zoning issues
(WESTCHESTER, N.Y., May 11, 2012)
-- The federal government has told Westchester County it will hold up a second year of community development funds because the county has not done enough to explain how it will overcome municipal zoning codes that could discriminate against black and Hispanic residents.
In letters sent to the county at the end of April, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said it would not approve the county’s plans for Community Development Block Grants for 2012 because an analysis of municipal zoning submitted in February is unacceptable. The two years of grants for county projects and nonprofits total more than $12.6 million.
Ned McCormack, a spokesman for Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, said the county has asked and will continue to ask HUD to release the money.
FULL STORY at lohud.com
NYC landlord to pay $2M in suit accusing child-rapist super of sexual harassment
(NEW YORK , May 09, 2012)
-- A New York City landlord who knowingly employed a child rapist as his building super will cough up a whopping $2 million to settle lawsuits claiming the man pressured female tenants to have sex in exchange for reduced rent.
"I'm very happy," Carol Engle, one of six women who will split the settlement, said after signing the agreement with landlord Stanley Katz.
For years, Katz stoutly defended his registered-sex-offender super, William Barnason, as a "prized employee."
Engle said that when she once complained to Katz about her high rent, he told her, "You should have been nicer to Billy,' suggesting that if she had slept with him, he would have cut her a financial break.
FULL STORY at myfoxdfw.com
Banks accused of neglecting homes in minority neighborhoods
(ATLANTA, May 09, 2012)
-- Empty and abandoned houses are a dangerous blight on their communities. Because of the mortgage meltdown, many are now owned by the banks.
The question is why are such a large number of abandoned homes in communities where the predominant population is people of color?
"What we found was neighborhoods of color were substantially less well maintained than white neighborhoods," said Gail Williams, Executive Director of Metro Fair Housing Services. "And here in the Atlanta area we've got a clear disparity."
The National Fair Housing Alliance has filed discrimination complaints with HUD against several banks for allegedly leaving hundreds of homes in disparate states of disrepair.
FULL STORY at 11alive.com
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