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- Latest news item posted on 07/25/2008 at 07:10 AM
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Justice prevails in Zanesville water case
(AKRON, Ohio, July 23, 2008)
-- On July 10, 2008, a U.S. district court jury in Columbus, Ohio found the City of Zanesville and Muskingum County guilty of racial discrimination for denying public water service to persons who presently reside and/or have lived in the predominately African-American neighborhood of Coal Run Road and Langan Lane near the City of Zanesville. The jury found in favor of the 68 plaintiffs, including the Fair Housing Advocates Association (FHAA), which was awarded $80,000 as a part of the total $10.9 million damages award. The lawsuit was filed in 2003 with representation by the law firm of Relman & Dane.
“Justice has prevailed,” said Vincent B. Curry, Executive Director of FHAA. “I am overjoyed that our clients have been vindicated and compensated for having been denied the simple right to access the same public water service that was being provided to their white neighbors.”
In 2002, FHAA initiated an investigation after it received a complaint that public water service was being denied to the primarily African-American neighborhood of Coal Run Road and Langan Lane, while it was being provided to primarily Caucasian homes surrounding the area. FHAA’s investigation confirmed the allegation. “The best way to describe what the evidence showed would be to use a doughnut with the doughnut representing the white neighborhoods and the hole representing the Coal Run –Langan Lane area,” said Mr. Curry. “The doughnut had public water service and the hole did not. It is depressing to think that if we had not pursued this matter, they would still have no public water service.” Before the complaint was filed, residents had no public water service and had to drink, bathe, and wash in water that contained bugs and had an odor; haul in water to be placed in a cistern; and ration water by sharing bath water and limiting the number of times that a toilet was flushed.
The jury examined the evidence and found that both the city and the county played a role in providing water service in ways that included, but not limited to, securing funding for water projects, determining what water projects were pursued, controlling who could tap into water lines and running water lines past Coal Run Road and Langan Lane in order to provide water to other cities, villages, or townships. According to Cindy Hairston, a plaintiff who lives on Coal Run, “When we saw Vince’s maps during a meeting at the public library, it became clear that the white folks had public water service and the blacks folks did not.” Said lead plaintiff, Jerry Kennedy, whose family lived in the area for over 50 years, “It was upsetting to look out my window and see my neighbor water his lawn and I had to haul my water in for all these years.”
PRESS RELEASE by the Fair Housing Advocates Association
Lawsuit targets villages's 'gentrification'
(FARMINGDALE, N.Y., July 23, 2008)
-- Legal experts say a federal judge's decision to give the go-ahead to a housing discrimination lawsuit filed by Hofstra Law School and Latino tenants against the Village of Farmingdale shows how disputes about "gentrification" are expanding from cities to the suburbs.
Hofstra and the plaintiffs, who include some day laborers, allege the village engaged in a deliberate campaign to drive Latinos out of Farmingdale, in part by encouraging redevelopment of an apartment building at 150 Secatogue Ave. that served as the heart of the village's "Little Latin America."
Judge Denis Hurley of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York this month denied a motion by the village to dismiss the lawsuit. The case is expected to go to trial by next spring.
FULL STORY in Newsday
San Diego sues Countrywide over lending practices
(SAN DIEGO, Calif., July 23, 2008)
-- City Attorney Mike Aguirre filed a civil complaint Wednesday against Countrywide Financial Corp. in an attempt to stop foreclosures in San Diego.
Aguirre said the suit targets subprime loans where homeowners face balloon payments after two or three years of the loan. City officials say San Diego saw 22,000 notices of foreclosure last year and that number has already climbed to 20,000 in the first six months of 2008.
Aguirre announced the suit in San Diego County Superior Court on Wednesday. Aguirre alleged that Countrywide has engaged in a "pattern of unlawful, fraudulent or unfair predatory real estate lending practices" that has caused numerous San Diego residents "to be in jeopardy of losing their homes through foreclosures."
FULL STORY by NBC San Diego
Finding housing discrimination, city fights back
(NEWTON, Mass., July 22, 2008)
-- Responding to studies concluding that Newton is home to pervasive housing discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, disability and other factors, city officials have taken a number of steps to eliminate it. They said they have made significant progress.
Housing discrimination is often an unseen problem in suburban communities, according to Margaret Siciliano, a housing development planner and a member of the city’s Fair Housing Task Force. “You never hear about these things … and you assume it must not be happening here,” she said.
In September and October 2005 and January and February 2006, the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston carried out a total of 34 paired rental and sales tests at real estate agencies and management companies listing units in Newton to study the effects of race, national origin and other factors. They acted in response to a request by Newton’s Fair Housing Task Force, which Aviva Rothman-Shore, outreach and policy advocate for the center, said was a highly unusual step for a city to take.
FULL STORY in The Newton Tab
DOJ brings sexual harassment case against manager in Alabama
(MONTGOMERY, Ala., July 17, 2008)
-- Responding to an investigation conducted by three Montgomery-based nonprofits, the United States Department of Justice filed a Fair Housing Act lawsuit on Thursday against a property manager in Montgomery for sexual harassment of female tenants, many of whom are in the Section 8 rental voucher program. The lawsuit alleges that Jamarlo GumBayTay engaged in a pattern or practice of making sexual advances towards female tenants, subjecting them to unwanted touching, granting or denying rental services based on response to his sexual advances, and taking adverse action against those who did not comply with his requests for sex. The lawsuit also names as defendants the property owners who hired Mr. GumBayTay to manage their properties.
This case comes on the heels of an earlier federal lawsuit filed against GumBayTay in February 2007 for sexual harassment against a non-Section 8 tenant, Yolanda Boswell. Ms. Boswell’s case, which is set for trial in October, was brought by the ACLU of Alabama, The Central Alabama Fair Housing Center (CAFHC), and Legal Services Alabama (LSA). In that case, which is factually similar to the allegations in the Justice Department’s suit, U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins has already issued a preliminary injunction against GumBayTay. Not long after the Boswell case was filed, the three organizations initiated an investigation in order to discover if any other tenants had been sexually harassed by GumBayTay, and that investigation produced 12 new complaints. After conducting exhaustive interviews and research, the ACLU, CAFHC, and LSA referred the new complaints to the Department of Justice, which conducted its own investigation and elected to file a “pattern or practice” suit.
PRESS RELEASE by the Central Alabama Fair Housing Center
Apartment complex faces fair housing complaint
(TROY, Ohio, July 16, 2008)
-- The Ohio Civil Rights Commission has filed a fair housing complaint against the developers and operators of the 204-unit Towne Park Apartment Homes, claiming the complex's apartments and common areas are not accessible to the disabled.
The action filed in Miami County Common Pleas Court claims an inspection done in November following a complaint by the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center found inaccessible features such as knob-type hardware on front entry doors to ground-floor units and common areas; inaccessible shower stalls in a common area; thresholds exceeding the maximum allowable change in level; and parking spaces exceeding the maximum allowable surface, among others.
The commission said the preliminary investigation showed "it is probable unlawful discriminatory practices have been or are being engaged in." It said conciliation was attempted, but failed to resolve the claims, leading to the court action.
FULL STORY in The Dayton Daily News
Housing commission holds first in series of hearings in Chicago
(CHICAGO, July 15, 2008)
-- Calling Chicago "ground zero" in the debate over housing discrimination, state and federal officials Tuesday kicked off a set of nationwide hearings to address America's fair-housing issues.
Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan welcomed the first regional hearing of the newly formed National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, which focused on equal housing access for minorities and the disabled.
The hearings, scheduled 40 years after the landmark 1968 Fair Housing Act, fall against the backdrop of the foreclosure crisis the attorney general's office has been investigating, Madigan said.
"[The foreclosure crisis] isn't the natural result of a slumping economy, and it isn't the result of homeowners taking on more than they can handle," she said. "This crisis is the direct result of unfair, deceptive and discriminatory lending practices by the lending industry."
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