Fair Housing for Developers

Walkable neighborhoods gaining popularity – even in the suburbs | Smart Growth America

2011-12-06T19:24:00.000-08:00

Last week, my colleague Chris Leinberger wrote a provocative op-ed in the New York Times titled “The Death of the Fringe Suburb.” Leinberger, who is president of LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors, a project of Smart Growth America, highlighted the convergence of a number of factors in heralding the decline of far flung, auto-dependent exurbs. Rising gas prices, demographic changes, and shifting consumer preferences have all made these areas less attractive to homebuyers — a fact reflected in the financial troubles and foreclosure crises many of these communities face.

This gloomy portrait, however, is only the prelude to Leinberger’s discussion of an exciting new wave of demand for real estate. Today, the most valuable housing is in center city and inner suburb communities where shops, schools and homes are within walking distance of one another. More and more Americans want to live in these affordable and accessible neighborhoods — and the proof is in the prices of homes in these areas. Perhaps even more importantly, this type of development is where the knowledge economy thrives, helps support regional economies and promotes environmental sustainability.

As he often does, smart growth critic Joel Kotkin quickly weighed in to refute this version of events. Kotkin cites data from the 2010 Census to show that suburbs are growing faster than central cities, but includes in this definition of “suburbs” many dense, wakable cities (Jersey City is one such example.) This difficultly in defining what exactly constitutes a suburb illustrates why the urban/suburban divide proffered by Kotkin misses the mark. Indeed, the rise in walkable development that Leinberger describes is largely taking place outside of central cities in suburbs that were unwalkable not long ago.

Fair Housing News 6-25-10

2010-06-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

HUD Steps Up in Texas - After 2008 Hurricanes Ike & Dolly, the federal government provided restoration funds to the Texas coast, but instead of directing those funds to the most damaged areas and those with the fewest resources to address their needs, Texas' plan was to spread the money around the state and gave the local governments broad authority on how the funds would be spent. Two affordable housing groups protested, and HUD rejected the state's plan, and forced the state to negotiate an equitable agreement with two advocacy groups.

In New Berlin, Wisconsin, low income housing tax credit developments have recently faced strong oppostion from condo owners and single-family homes, who use the oft-heralded (but seldom proven) claims that the apartments will hurt their property values and bring crime. The apartment complex did receive its LIHTC funding commitment, although the city planning commission has rescinded a parking waiver it had previously granted. And in Kenosha, WI, two LIHTC projects are facing intense opposition from neighborhood residents. It's always fun to read the comments below the articles.

Charlotte, South Carolina has faced intense pressure lately as the city has attempted to disperse low-income housing, with multiple locations being shot down by homeowner opposition. But the affordable housing advocates in Charlotte continue to look for acceptable sites.

And in Dallas, an attempt to place homeless housing units in an existing apartment complex has resulted in a bitter contest with homeowners and many city council and neighborhood meetings, and a local housing watchdog is closely monitoring the situation after the decision was delayed. Stories 1 2 3 4 5 6 In the midst of this, the Dallas Housing Authority plans to use 160 homes for the homeless and formerly incarcerated. A HUD complaint was filed last week over siting for chronically homeless housing in the Knoxville, Tennessee area.

In Grapevine, a Dallas suburb, city planners proposed a mixed-use zoning district around a future transit stop, only to have the mayor state "To even consider this is the biggest shock I've had ... as mayor. We need to keep multifamily out or abandon the historic district." Query -- apartments = density = transit ridership ... so how does it make sense to promote a TOD mixed-zoning district without apartments? To say nothing of transit-equity issues and the need in particular for affordable housing near transit to reduce the huge housing+transportation burdens of lower income families.

In Orchard Park, New York, a local non-profit proposed to build an apartment building for lower income senior citizens, and the city denied their rezoning, after asking to see rosters of the zip codes of the residents of an existing seniors' low income development. The zoning denial was ostensibly based on concerns of providing services, and the loss of industrial land.

And the town of Freemont, Nebraska has passed a law making it illegal to hire or rent property to illegal immigrants. They should Google "Farmers Branch, Texas" on this issue (they have spent $2 million dollars trying to uphold their anti-immigration measures). Federal judges have struck down both attempts by that city.

Making Wall Street face the music: Enforcing the mandate to affirmatively further fair housing

2010-03-07T13:05:00.000-08:00

AlterNet

Lisa Rice // February 24, 2010

“It is an old maxim and a very sound one that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. . . I am decidedly opposed to the people’s money being used to pay the fiddler.”

President Abraham Lincoln made this profound statement in 1837, yet it remains applicable today. The people have once again bailed out financial institutions paying for the dalliances and excesses of Wall Street. Those on Main Street never got invited to the soirees but they are footing the bill – to the tune of $9.7 trillion by one Bloomberg estimate.

Indeed, over the past two years, everyday Americans have found little reason to sing or dance as news of the arrogance and greed of those in the financial sector seems never ending. Just when we think we’ve heard the worst, another ball drops. Just when we thought big bankers were sufficiently chagrined by the anger of hard-working taxpayers, we’re told that big Wall Street firms are gearing up for another round of ridiculously high and undeserved bonuses. It has seemed that there is little that the government or the public can do to make financial institutions benefiting from the public’s generosity place the interests of consumers and communities above those of their own. But, hope does spring eternal in an often overlooked provision of an important civil rights statute.

Frisco council votes to support reduced-rent apartments

2010-03-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

Dallas Morning News

Valerie Wigglesworth // February 17, 2010

More than 100 people turned out Tuesday to voice opposition to two proposed apartment complexes in Frisco.

The planned complexes are dependent on acceptance into the state's Housing Tax Credit program, which provides federal tax incentives to developments with rents at below-market rates.

The complexes also would set aside a certain number of units for Section 8 voucher-holders from the Dallas Housing Authority.

Late into Tuesday night, the City Council discussed the projects and spent more than an hour in executive session consulting with the city’s attorney. Just before midnight, the council voted 4-to-1 to write letters supporting the projects to the state, which will decide in July which projects get funded. City support is key in the developers’ applications to the state for funding.

Galveston Public Housing Redevelopment Issues

2010-03-07T12:41:00.000-08:00

Galveston County Daily News

Rhianon Meyers // February 15, 2010

The Galveston Open Government Project, a watchdog group critical of the Galveston Housing Authority, has sent a direct appeal to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, urging him to freeze all federal funding to the agency and order officials to develop a countywide housing authority.

David Stanowski, cofounder of the group, wrote to Secretary Shaun Donovan that the housing authority is violating fair housing laws by concentrating public housing on the island.

Dispersing public housing throughout the more affluent areas of Galveston County, instead of concentrating it in Galveston, will give public housing residents a “better chance to escape from poverty,” he wrote.

“Rebuilding public housing in the only city within Galveston County trapped in a long-term state of decline, and just beginning a multiyear recovery from a hurricane, also forces its tenants to live in the city with the lowest median household income, the highest crime rate, and one of the lowest-rated school systems in the county,” Stanowski wrote.

Farm Worker Housing Settlement

2010-03-07T12:39:00.000-08:00

From: Bangor Daily News

Sharon Kiley Mack / February 16, 2010

MILBRIDGE, Maine — A lawsuit involving the town of Milbridge and Mano en Mano, a local nonprofit, was settled in U.S. District Court last week, a move expected by all parties.

Magistrate Judge Margaret J. Kravchuk ordered that all details be completed within 30 days, at which time the suit filed by Mano en Mano will be dismissed.

The lawsuit, initiated last summer, was based on alleged violations of the federal Fair Housing Act. Mano en Mano, a nonprofit advocacy group, was using $1.6 million in federal grant funds to construct a housing unit for permanent agricultural workers.

When Milbridge voters in June 2009 approved a moratorium on such facilities, Mano en Mano sued the town.

Why Chattanooga is Trying to Stop Apartments

2010-02-14T06:58:00.000-08:00

Chattanoogan.com
January 20, 2010

Mayor Littlefield says the street for the Fairmount apartments is too narrow, but until now the city has not shown any concern about the street. The Fairmount apartments have been in the same area for over 30 years, and no city official including the now second term mayor had a problem with the area. The only reason he and others are interested now is because of the two- and three-story homes being built near the Fairmount Apartments. His only concern is that with the reconstruction of the Fairmount apartments the property value of the enormous homes being built will be lowered. The Chattanooga Housing Authority has assured everyone that all applicants will be screened thoroughly prior to granting them housing.

He says he has spoken to HUD about his concern, but he failed to say that HUD sent representatives from the regional office to walk the site. The HUD representatives have said Chattanooga Housing Authority’s plan for 36 apartments is acceptable and doable.

He says there are no grocery stores nearby, but what grocery stores are currently being visited by the residents living on Valentine Circle and other areas near the Fairmount property?

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Transport Equity & Federal Funding

2010-02-04T11:59:00.000-08:00

DC.StreetsBlog.org
Elana Schor // January 27, 2010

The Obama administration's warning that the Bay Area has jeopardized federal stimulus funding for its Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) project could have national consequences for other urban transit proposals that risk harming low-income riders, civil rights and transit advocates predicted yesterday.

Several Bay Area advocacy groups briefed the media on the civil-rights complaint they filed against the OAC, which the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) heeded last week in a letter [PDF] that threatened to yank $70 million in stimulus money from the project unless planners comply with federal equity rules.

Stuart Cohen, executive director of TransForm, said advocates' victorious bid to push Bay Area's transit planners to examine more cost-effective and equitable alternatives to the OAC would "have a ripple effect" as other cities re-examine how their transit plans would affect lower-income and minority riders.

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Changes to Project Fail to Soothe Homeowners

2010-02-02T06:55:00.000-08:00

GreenvilleOnline.com
Rudolph Bell // January 14, 2010

Greenville planners initially recommended against an Atlanta developer's controversial proposal to build affordable housing along Augusta Street near the intersection with Mauldin Road.

And now its proposal goes a lot further toward satisfying Greenville's new guidelines for multifamily housing, said Jean Pool, manager of planning and development for the city. “We've been looking at it, and at this point from what we can tell it does a much better job of meeting the guidelines than the last one,” Pool said.

Neighbors, however, fear the government-subsidized development would bring traffic and crime and say its footprint and setback still run afoul of the guidelines.

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Galveston public housing plans go to feds for review

2010-01-10T11:18:00.000-08:00

Galveston County Daily News
Rhiannon Meyers // January 3, 2010

GALVESTON — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will scrutinize Galveston Housing Authority’s plan to rebuild 569 hurricane-damaged public housing units to ensure public housing isn’t concentrated in one area, but the agency declined to comment further until it receives the agency’s redevelopment plans.

Like all reviews of redevelopment plans, the federal housing department will “want to see a housing plan that provides quality housing opportunities for all the residents, with good neighborhood amenities, and avoids concentration of the housing in any one area,” agency spokesman Brian Sullivan said.

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Social Justice Advocates Make Case For Annexation

2010-01-10T06:50:00.000-08:00

California Planning & Development Report
Paul Shigley // November 9, 2009

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has given new life to a lawsuit alleging that the City of Modesto and Stanislaus County discriminated against four predominately Latino communities.

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West Hollywood Multi-Family Moratorium Invalidated

2010-01-10T06:40:00.000-08:00

California Planning & Development Report
Paul Shigley // December 28, 2009

A City of West Hollywood moratorium on new multi-family housing development has been declared invalid by the Second District Court of Appeal. The court ruled that the city had not made required findings for the moratorium.

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Developer sues Georgetown SC for more than $1 million

2010-01-10T06:37:00.000-08:00

TheSunNews.com
Aliana Ramos // December 29, 2009

The developer of an affordable housing apartment complex has sued the city of Georgetown for more than $1 million in damages, alleging the city violated the Fair Housing Act in preventing the project from being built.

"The bottom line is I think the city blocked a multi-family housing project because they wanted single-family homes," said attorney Benjamin Nicholson, who is representing Connelly Development LLC. "The problem is there is a disproportionate number of people in Georgetown who can't afford single-family homes," he said.

City Walk Transitiona Housing Opens in Dallas

2010-01-10T06:36:00.000-08:00

Homeless Transitional Housing Opens in Downtown Dallas

Experts cast doubt on housing philosophy

2009-12-28T05:57:00.000-08:00

Galveston County Daily News
Rhiannon Meyers // December 25, 2009

The new public housing philosophy of dispersing public housing residents across a region instead of segregating the poor in one city may not work in Galveston County, experts said.The federal government in recent years has pushed public housing agencies to spread housing over entire regions in an attempt to provide better opportunities for families lumped together in poor, crime-ridden cities with low-performing schools, John Powell, executive director of Ohio State University’s Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, said.

However, regional public housing isn’t successful without solid public transportation, an abundance of low-skilled, entry-level jobs and places where the uninsured can get health care, experts said.

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Altering public housing laws

2009-12-27T18:15:00.000-08:00

AL.com
John S. Peck // December 24, 2009

The battle over public housing's spread into south Huntsville will shift to the Big House next year - the Alabama Statehouse.

Two Madison County legislators plan to re-introduce legislation that would curb the power of municipal housing authorities.

The measure by state Rep. Mike Ball, R-Madison, and state Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, would end eminent domain authority of public housing authorities and require local government consent before authorities can purchase property for affordable housing.

Eminent domain, the practice of government seizing property against the will of property owners, hasn't been used in any Huntsville Housing Authority acquisitions. All of its purchases have been on the open market.

Houses of late, including one on Gallatin Street in the medical district and another on Drummond Road in southeast Huntsville, were bought to renovate and resell to income-qualified buyers.

Orr and Ball say their main intent is to add "transparency" so neighborhoods don't get blindsided by government housing.

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Alternative site sought for senior housing in Orchard Park

2009-12-27T17:54:00.000-08:00

The Buffalo News
Barbara O'Brien // December 17, 2009

The attorney for People Inc. is exploring an alternative site for subsidized senior citizen housing in Orchard Park or West Seneca.

Meanwhile, a Town Board member lashed out at the not-for-profit agency for accusing Orchard Park of discrimination in a proposed senior citizen complex.

“This entire community is disappointed in People Inc. They insulted our community,” Councilman David R. Kaczor said during a work session before Wednesday’s board meeting. “I would like to see an apology by People Inc.”

Attorney Ralph C. Lorigo told Orchard Park Town Board members that there are locations at Houghton College in West Seneca and on California Drive in Orchard Park that may be suitable for senior citizen housing.

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Unwelcome mat out for project to house chronically homeless

2009-12-27T12:23:00.000-08:00

Dallas Morning News
Kim Horner // December 13, 2009

Developer Larry Hamilton has been working for months to turn the empty Plaza Hotel south of downtown Dallas into homes for the homeless. But it's been much tougher than he imagined.

Hamilton and other developers complain of roadblocks even as they try to carry out the city's goal of opening 700 apartments for the homeless by 2014. The housing, which would come with mental health and addiction services, is considered the most effective way to clear the streets of the hard-core homeless.

But Dallas has lagged behind other major cities in creating the units. Public financing, neighborhood cooperation and political will are all in short supply in a city that has been able to raise millions for arts projects, a convention center hotel and Calatrava bridges over the Trinity River.

"They have this aspiration to do 700 units, but I think it's going to be hard to do any," Hamilton said. "I don't see how it's going to get done."

LA -- Race is factor in affordable-housing outcry, lawyer says

2009-12-27T12:18:00.000-08:00

DailyComet.com
Naomi King // December 13, 2009

HOUMA — In a letter to Terrebonne Parish officials, a lawyer representing an affordable-rent development in Gray says opposition by local residents is racially motivated.

But some residents and parish officials said race doesn't have anything to do with the ongoing debate about Three Oaks. Neighbors — mostly from Southern Estates — have said decreased property values, neighborhood aesthetics, drainage, crime, traffic and overcrowded schools are among their concerns.

The Parish Council will discuss the development at its Community Development and Planning Committee meeting, which starts at 5:45 p.m. Monday. The meeting, which is open to the public, will be in the Government Tower's second-floor meeting room, 8026 Main St.

Statement from NLIHC President Sheila Crowley on HUD’S Rejection of Texas’s Disaster Plan

2009-12-27T12:17:00.000-08:00

CommonDreams.org
November 20, 2009

he National Low Income Housing Coalition joins housing advocates from Texas in applauding the decision by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to reject the plan submitted by the state of Texas on how the state would use Hurricane Ike disaster recovery funds.

Housing advocates in Texas objected to the state plan primarily because it failed to assure that low and moderate income Texans who lost their homes or whose homes were damaged in Hurricane Ike would be assisted. After conducting their review of what the state proposed, HUD officials agreed with the advocates that the plan did not meet federal CDBG requirements.

In a letter to Texas Governor Rick Perry, HUD Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development Mercedes Marquez notified him that these requirements had not been met and more than $1.7 billion in Community Development Block Grants would be withheld until they were. The state now has 45 days to resubmit its plan.

HUD based its denial on Texas's failure to provide an adequate method of distribution of the funds that would allow the public to exercise its right to comment on where the funds would be spent and who would benefit. Federal law requires that states who receive CDBG funding for disaster recovery detail how the funds will be allocated to local units of government and that the state notify the public of the state action plan and give the public an opportunity to comment.

LA Parish Neighbors Voice Opposition to Development

2009-12-27T12:15:00.000-08:00

Houma Today
Naomi King // November 20, 2009

HOUMA — More than 40 residents voiced strong opposition Thursday to a planned residential and commercial development in Gray that Terrebonne Parish government is helping finance with $10 million in hurricane-recovery grants doled out after the 2008 storms.

The 144-acre subdivision, which would include a golf course, grocery store, day care center, two hotels, 335 low-rent apartments and roughly 100 single-home lots, would be built off La. 24 south of U.S. 90, between Evergreen Drive and Marietta Place. The grant money will be used to build the multi-family units as part of the state's requirement that the $10 million be spent on affordable rental housing.

Residents, overwhelming from the Southern Estates subdivision, feared the homes and apartments would alter the character of their neighborhood, drive down their property values or bring crime onto their streets.

What does law on housing require?

2009-12-27T07:13:00.000-08:00

Galveston County Daily News
Heber Taylor // December 9, 2009

It doesn’t matter what public officials think of the Galveston Open Government Project. Members of the self-styled watchdog group have asked some good questions. People in government should be able to answer them.

The folks in this political group, who have described public housing as a failed social experiment, have asked whether a lawsuit in Baltimore has implications for public housing in Galveston County. Ironically, the lawsuit in Baltimore was championed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund. Politics can make for strange allies.

The lawsuit, Thompson v. the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, claimed that the plans to continue the decades-old pattern of public housing in Baltimore discriminated against African-Americans living in public housing.

In 2005, U.S. District Judge Marvin Garbis said: “Geographic considerations, economic limitations, population shifts, etc., have rendered it impossible to effect a meaningful degree of desegregation of public housing by redistributing the public housing population of Baltimore City within the city limits. Baltimore City should not be viewed as an island reservation for use as a container for all of the poor of a contiguous region.”

The judge said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would have to take a regional approach to promoting fair housing opportunities.

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Bush administration blew off civil rights enforcement

2009-12-27T07:11:00.000-08:00

Valley Morning Star
Mary Sanchez // December 17, 2009

This one is for those who naively believe that an entity called the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice should be in the business of enforcing the nation’s civil rights laws. Under the late Bush administration, one had reason to doubt. For years, critics blasted the Bush Justice Department for ideologically inspired hiring and firing decisions, unfair treatment of career (read: ideologically unreliable) staff members, and a selective approach to its enforcement responsibilities.

Now a 180-page report prepared for Congress by the Government Accountability Office bears out many of those contentions.

The report, which assessed civil rights enforcement between 2001 and 2007, found big declines from the Clinton years in cases having to do with housing and job discrimination, and with disability rights. Thomas Perez, the new Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, summarized the findings to Congress in testimony this month.

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Barriers to Affordable Housing

2009-12-27T07:01:00.000-08:00

National Center for Policy Analysis
James Franko // December 1, 2009

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) considers housing affordable if it costs less than 30 percent of a family's income. Yet, according to HUD, 12 million renters and homeowners spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing. Many of these are low-income individuals or families. But in some areas even middle-income families find the supply of affordable housing limited.

For instance, assuming a family spends no more than 28 percent of its gross income on housing [see Figure I]:

In the San Francisco metropolitan area, only 26.9 percent of houses sold are affordable to a family with an annual median income of $96,800.
In greater Chicago, more than two-thirds (67.8 percent) of houses are in the price range of a median income family ($74,600).
In Indianapolis, almost all homes (94.5 percent) are affordable to the typical family ($68,100).

Since rental prices closely track home prices, these numbers also indicate the general availability of affordable housing.

The Fight After the Storm - Why hasn’t Galveston rebuilt public housing?

2009-12-27T06:31:00.000-08:00

The Texas Observer
Forrest Wilder // November 27, 2009

After Hurricane Ike battered Galveston in September 2008, city leaders promised that the island’s poor would be welcomed home. Public housing, they pledged, would be rebuilt within a year or so. But a number of bureaucratic setbacks, as well as a spasm of anti-public housing activism—some of it racially charged—has hindered the rebuilding effort.

More than a year after the storm, local officials confess that residences for displaced families may not be ready for another two to three years, and that’s if everything goes as planned.

The Galveston Housing Authority had planned to not only replace the public housing units lost to the storm, but build additional homes to meet increased need.

Revived La. Parish Faces Fight Over Race

2009-12-27T05:10:00.000-08:00

National Public Radio
Debbie Elliott // November 19, 2009

Slowly, about half the population of St. Bernard Parish has returned to the area since Hurricane Katrina. But with a twist — it's not as white as it used to be, which has sparked a battle over low-income housing and race.

After Katrina, local attorney David Jarrell decided he could help his native St. Bernard Parish rebuild by buying and renovating damaged houses. In a bound notebook with pictures of the dozen or so properties he has refurbished, he singles out one that was "trashed" by the hurricane before he restored it.

"This was the inside — it was wood floors, 10-foot ceilings," he says. "Everything was meticulously designed. But it was still affordable for people, so if anybody was looking to rent, it was just a great little house."

St. Bernard Parish Council backs off on vote on apartments

2009-12-26T05:40:00.000-08:00

The Times-Picayune
Chris Kirkham // November 3, 2009

After pressure from federal housing officials and a pending lawsuit in federal court, the St. Bernard Parish Council on Tuesday officially rescinded an item on this month's special election ballot that would have given voters the chance to permanently ban large apartment complexes in the parish.

The move came on advice from the parish's lawyers, who last month told the council that they believed the potential apartment ban would jeopardize federal financing for recovery projects and hurt the parish's appeals of its ongoing fair housing lawsuit.

The council proposed the voter referendum on future apartment complexes after three defeats in federal court this year over its attempt to block construction of four 72-unit mixed-income apartment buildings in Chalmette. U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan sided with a local fair housing group and a Dallas real estate company on the four apartment complexes, and the parish eventually granted the building permits necessary for the developers, Provident Realty Advisors, to begin construction.

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How to Solve Homelessness? Try Providing Housing

2009-12-25T06:45:00.000-08:00

NextAmericanCity
Akua Nyame-Mensah // October 26, 2009

As the amount of housing foreclosures has jumped, the number of individuals who have found them themselves without appropriate, permanent shelter has increased. In addition to the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) decided this summer to tract homelessness in specific regions quarterly. The new report, The Homelessness Pulse Project is meant to help HUD “gain a better understanding of the impact of the current economic crisis on homelessness.” In their 2008 Report to Congress HUD found that “[o]n a single night in January 2008, there were 664,414 sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons nationwide. Nearly 6 in 10 people who were homeless at a single point-in-time were in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs, while 42 percent were unsheltered on the “street” or in other places not meant for human habitation.” The Homeless Cost Study, recently released by The United Way of Great Los Angeles, is another report that finds placing chronically homeless people into permanent supportive housing will not only give those without shelter a safe place to live but save metropolitan areas and taxpayers thousands of dollars.

Other recent reports and studies done by organizations share this view. In a 2009 Policy Guide of the National Alliance to End Homelessness found that providing “[a]ffordable housing is the primary solution to ending episodic homelessness” and created a guide about adopting a ‘Housing First approach.’ Other current studies have focused on the cost of homeless individuals on hospitals. An article about studies conducted in Chicago and Seattle “found that hospitals saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by helping to provide… services together with local advocacy groups.”

Housing group alleges bias by town of Sunnyvale

2009-12-25T06:27:00.000-08:00

Dallas Morning News
Ray Leszcynski // October 27, 2009

The Inclusive Communities Project, a Dallas fair housing agency, filed court documents against the town of Sunnyvale on Monday, citing a failure to live up to a 2005 agreement and discriminatory practices the plaintiffs say date to the town's incorporation.

The action marks the latest salvo by plaintiffs in a legal battle that has dragged on for more than 20 years over the right to develop affordable housing in Sunnyvale, a rural enclave of mostly upper-end homes in eastern Dallas County.

Monday's filing was triggered after the town denied a multifamily development on ICP property, the third low-income housing development attempted unsuccessfully in Sunnyvale since 2008.

There are no apartments and no Section 8 residents in Sunnyvale, where the average home has a market value of $274,081.

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Taking Sides in Fight over NIMBYism

2009-11-16T06:21:00.001-08:00

Link to --> Article in Units Magazine November 2009 on new focus on Fair Housing issues, including St. Bernard Parish, LA and Westchester County, NY cases

Housing Battle Reveals Post-Katrina Tensions

2009-11-01T05:39:00.001-08:00

From: The New York Times
By: Campbell Robertson // October 3, 2009

CHALMETTE, La. — The parish of St. Bernard, a quiet, insular suburb just east of New Orleans, has in the end agreed to allow housing for low-income families.

But even though it is only a few hundred apartment units, it had to be ordered by a federal judge. The parish has fought desperately to prevent such housing and an influx of renters, at one point even approving a law that prohibited homeowners from renting to anyone other than a blood relative, before it was challenged and repealed.

The battle over low-income housing has been one of the most bitter that anyone in the middle-class, mostly white parish can remember, one that has stoked issues the region has been grappling with since Hurricane Katrina: anger at the federal government and long-simmering class and racial tensions.

It also reflects widespread anxiety about just how drastically the area changed after the floodwaters receded.

“I think people have adopted this issue as one that goes far beyond the reality of its impact,” said Craig Taffaro Jr., the parish president. “It tapped into the soul of our recovery.”

Fight for affordable housing heats up

2009-11-01T05:31:00.000-08:00

From: The Leader
By: Susan C. Moller

RUTHERFORD, NJ —The number of affordable housing units to be included in plans for the Highland Cross Redevelopment Area in Rutherford remains in dispute.

Linque-H.C. Partners, LLC, the developer that owns the controversial property east of Route 17, filed a lawsuit Friday, Sept. 18, challenging the 2008 regulations established by the state’s Council on Affordable Housing — the agency charged with insuring that the state’s court-mandated affordable housing quotas are met.

When Rutherford submitted its affordable housing plan to COAH, officials included Highland Cross as a possible location of low-income units, despite historic opposition from residents. By submitting the plan, borough officials were hopeful that Rutherford would be deemed compliant and protected from litigation-induced loss of zoning power.

But, the borough’s efforts, and the COAH regulations on which they were based, have not met with approval from Linque.

Milbridge upholds building moratorium

2009-11-01T05:20:00.000-08:00

From: Bangor Daily News
By: Sharon Kiley Mack // September 29, 2009

MILBRIDGE, Maine — In two separate votes Monday night, more than 165 Milbridge residents upheld a building moratorium that was enacted last June for multiunit housing.

In the first vote, which would have rescinded the entire moratorium, the vote was 65 yes, 100 no.

The second vote, which would have excluded from the moratorium Mano en Mano’s six-family housing unit proposed for Wyman Road, also was defeated but by a much smaller margin. The vote was 72 yes, 82 no.

The votes pave the way for a federal lawsuit filed by Mano en Mano against the town to proceed. A hearing on the suit had been scheduled for Friday, Oct. 2, but a continuance was granted earlier Monday.

If the town had voted to rescind the moratorium, the lawsuit would have been moot.

The court will set a new hearing date later this week.

Don't apologize for helping create affordable housing

2009-10-31T14:17:00.000-07:00

From: LoHud.com
September 26, 2009

Perhaps only in the upside-down world of Westchester would county legislators, in the midst of rampant unemployment, gripping recession and widespread economic dislocation, feel compelled to issue apologia for agreeing to build affordable housing. A half-century ago, John F. Kennedy (and doubtless his ghostwriter) gave the world "Profiles in Courage"; here in Westchester, following the Board of Legislators' approval this week of a $51 million settlement of a False Claims Act/fair housing lawsuit, taxpayers get treated to profiles in regret.

"We all know that we were in a bad situation, and we had to choose the best of a bad situation," said Legislator Michael Kaplowitz, D-Somers, a reluctant "Yes" vote for the settlement, which was approved, 12-5, Tuesday night. It obliges the county to help build some 750 units of affordable housing over the next seven years, most of it in communities that have thwarted such accommodations.

His colleague John Nonna, D-Pleasantville, who earlier had objected to any of the units coming into a portion of his district, issued a 1,250-word essay explaining his "difficult" vote for the agreement. "The important point is that we move forward to try to accomplish the settlement in cooperation with our towns and villages, the (government-appointed) monitor and federal government and be mindful and attentive to the concerns of our residents."

Affordable housing laws aren't stopping segregation

2009-10-31T14:06:00.001-07:00

From: washingtonexaminer.com
By: Rigel Oliveri // September 24, 2009

Affluent New York City suburb Westchester County recently agreed to spend more than $50 million to build or acquire 750 affordable housing units in order to help desegregate some of its almost entirely white towns and villages. It only did so because it had been sued.

In February, a federal court determined that Westchester had taken virtually no action to fulfill its promise to use millions of dollars in federal Community Development Block Grant money to further fair housing.

The level of residential racial segregation in the United States is pronounced. Of the 50 U.S. metropolitan areas with the largest black populations, all show a moderate to high level of segregation. Westchester is unusually high.

Westchester County, NY Agrees to Add Housing in Landmark Settlement

2009-10-31T13:57:00.000-07:00

From: Affordable Housing Finance
By: Donna Kimura

New York’s Westchester County will make a $51.6 million investment in affordable housing, under an agreement announced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Justice Department.

The deal, which settles a three-year lawsuit, is expected to result in the construction of 750 units of affordable housing in overwhelmingly white neighborhoods in the county.

The agreement could have a sweeping effect on other communities nationwide.

“It’s very good news for developers, for-profit and not-for-profit, who have been interested in developing in communities that have been closed,” said Craig Gurian, executive director of the Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York (ADC).

Westchester County receives an annual Community Development Block Grant allocation from HUD, and as a condition of receiving this fund, it agrees to “affirmatively further fair housing.” From 2000 to 2008, the county certified that it had complied with this requirement.

ADC disputed the certification. A federal court then ruled that the county failed its legal obligation to explicitly analyze “the existence and impact of race discrimination on housing opportunities and choice in its jurisdiction.”

St. Bernard Defers Actions Following Judge's Ruling

2009-10-31T08:13:00.000-07:00

From: WVUE Fox 8 New Orleans
By: Shelly Brown // September 18, 2009

St. Bernard - After meeting in executive session for more than two hours, St. Bernard Parish Council members decided Thursday to take no action to pursue legal options following a federal district court judge's contempt of court ruling last week.

St. Bernard complied Friday to avoid facing thousands of dollars in fines, but Parish President Craig Taffaro said the council and administration are buying time for now.

Taffaro said, "we still believe that as a municipality, the parish council and administration has the right to govern our own parish and to make land use and zoning and planning decisions at a local level and that we deserve some protection as long as we are in the scope of law and we believe we are."

St. Bernard Parish - Judge Rules in Provident's Favor

2009-10-31T06:47:00.000-07:00

From: Dallas Business Journal

By: Katherine Cromer Brock // September 11, 2009

Dallas-based Provident Realty Advisors Inc. has won another victory on the road to building $60 million worth of mixed-income housing in St. Bernard Parish, La.

A U.S. district court judge Friday found the parish in contempt of court — for the third time — in its efforts to “thwart, delay and derail the proposed developments.”

As previously reported by the Dallas Business Journal, Provident has built or started construction on more than $200 million worth of affordable housing in and around New Orleans. The four 72-unit apartment buildings proposed in neighboring St. Bernard Parish would include affordable housing and market-rate housing.

In court documents, the parish is accused of imposing a racially motivated moratorium on apartment building to block Provident’s developments. The parish, whose resident base is about 90 percent white, has claimed that it has not yet rebuilt adequate infrastructure to support the apartments, but a judge has ruled that the parish is in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act and must lift the moratorium to allow the apartment project to move forward.

Parish leaders have continued to stymie the developments, according to court documents.

Cincinatti -- Uptown neighborhoods oppose Vernon Manor’s conversion to low-income housing

2009-10-31T06:35:00.000-07:00

From: Business Courier

By: Dan Monk // September 11, 2009

The neighborhoods surrounding the Vernon Manor are lining up to oppose the conversion of the former luxury hotel to low-income housing.

Avondale Community Council President Patricia Milton said neighborhood leaders in Clifton, Corryville, Mt Auburn and Clifton Heights met Tuesday to discuss the prospect of a low-income conversion. They emerged unanimous in their opposition to the project, according to Patricia Milton, president of the Avondale Community Council.

“Community support is vital to receiving city, state and federal funding for low income tax credits to support this type of project. We will not support any tax credit applications or zone changes for this proposed project,” Milton wrote in a Sept. 11 letter to Belvedere Corp. co-owner Alex Warm.

Commission could revisit affordable housing issue

2009-10-31T05:34:00.000-07:00

From: Panama City NewsHerald.com
By: Matt Dixon // August 27, 2009

PANAMA CITY — Developers of a proposed affordable housing apartment complex again are asking the city to relinquish its interest in a portion of a street that runs through the proposed site, according to letters obtained by The News Herald.

At its Aug. 11 meeting, the city commission voted not to vacate its interest in the portion of 10th Court that lies between Elm and Sherman avenues in Millville. That portion of the street intersects two plots of land where the Paces Foundation, a Georgia-based nonprofit group that “provides affordable housing and services,” is trying to build a 92-unit apartment complex.

Paces has secured a $12 million state grant and a $75,000 commitment from the city to help construct the complex.

If the city vacates its interest, the apartment could be built as one building across what is now 10th Court. If it does not, the complex will have to be built as two separate buildings with the street running between them.

The proposed vacation of 10th Court was met with fierce opposition from community members who said the multi-level housing could be a magnet for crime and attract an element they did not want in their community.

Whether in New Orleans or St. Bernard Parish, the poor aren't welcome anywhere

2009-10-31T05:26:00.000-07:00

From: New Orleans Times Picayune
By: Jarvis DeBerry // August 22, 2009

Eastern New Orleans has often been a battleground for this kind of intra-racial class warfare because that part of the city has included beautiful mansions and huge unsightly apartment complexes -- one of which I used to call home. Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis gave the impression soon after Hurricane Katrina that she spoke for the entire area when she trumpeted the phrase "right to return."

She's fought mightily for homeowners -- that is, those who have already acquired some semblance of wealth. However, she has shown herself to be indifferent -- if not outright opposed -- to the interests of low-wage residents who require affordable-housing options to return to the city.

In leading the opposition against a developer looking to build 36 affordable single-family houses near Lake Carmel at an average cost of $200,000, Willard-Lewis said the interests of current residents are her chief concern. So much for everybody else returning.

Housing bias in St. Bernard Parish is proving costly in the long run

2009-09-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

From: New Orleans Times Picayune
By: Javis DeBerry // September 13, 2009

Here's a synopsis of U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan's Friday ruling against St. Bernard Parish: Keep acting a fool if you want, but it's going to cost you.

Parish officials have been brazenly defying the judge's orders that they comply with the Fair Housing Act. But the parish will begin hemorrhaging money if those officials don't immediately conform to federal law.

MORE

Westchester County NY Fair Housing Consent Decree

2009-09-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

From: The New York Times
By: Sam Roberts // August 11, 2009

Westchester Adds Housing to Desegregation Pact

Westchester County entered into a landmark desegregation agreement on Monday that would compel it to create hundreds of houses and apartments for moderate-income people in overwhelmingly white communities and aggressively market them to nonwhites in Westchester and New York City.

The lawsuit, filed under the federal False Claims Act, argued that when Westchester applied for federal Community Development Block Grants for affordable housing and other projects, county officials treated part of the application as boilerplate — lying when they claimed to have complied with mandates to encourage fair housing.

The agreement calls for the county to spend more than $50 million of its own money, in addition to other funds, to build or acquire 750 homes or apartments, 630 of which must be provided in towns and villages where black residents constitute 3 percent or less of the population and Hispanic residents make up less than 7 percent. The 120 other spaces must meet different criteria for cost and ethnic concentration.

Implications for Developers -- If a city is bowing to NIMBY forces in fighting affordable housing, remind them of their obligation in taking federal funds to "affirmatively further fair housing."

For two great discussions of the Westchester County case, see the Equity Blog and Poverty in America.

MORE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

St. Bernard Parish LA Case

2009-09-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

In mid-2008, a Dallas developer filed applications with the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency (LHFA) to secure low income housing tax credits on four apartment complexes in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana (across the bridge from the 9th Ward). By way of background, in this latest round of tax credits, LHFA gave priority to two parishes that were hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina but had not received tax credits in prior rounds. St. Bernard Parish had over 90 percent of its housing stock significantly damaged by the hurricane. The Parish is 94 percent Caucasian versus adjoining Orleans Parish which is over 70 percent African American.

After the developer requested its tax credits, but before LHFA awarded the credits, the Parish passed a moratorium on multifamily development to stop development of the apartment complexes. This was the 4th in a series of measures passed by the Parish to stop rental housing --previously, the Parish had adopted a 2007 multifamily moratorium, a ban on any house being rented that was not rented prior to the hurricane, and a revised ban on renting houses that only allowed rental to a "blood relative." In late 2007/early 2008, the blood relative ordinance was challenged in Federal District Court by a local nonprofit. The nonprofit claimed the blood relative ordinance violated the Fair Housing Act. The Parish and the nonprofit ultimately entered into a Consent Decree that, among other things, prohibited the Parish from violating the Fair Housing Act for three years, with the court retaining jurisdiction over Fair Housing Act violations by the Parish during that time period. The Blood Relative Consent Decree is attached

In December, the developer intervened in the nonprofit's lawsuit against the Parish and together the nonprofit and the developer claimed the new multifamily moratorium violates the Fair Housing Act and the Consent Decree. They moved to have the Consent Decree enforced and the moratorium struck down. In March, the judge granted the request to enforce the Consent Decree, requiring the Parish to revoke the moratorium. The judge subsequently granted a motion for contempt and sanctions against the Parish.

Now, the Parish is using the planning and zoning process (subdivision approval) to block the apartment developments. The nonprofit and the developer petitioned the court to again hold the Parish in contempt for these actions and on August 17th, the judge held that the Parish's conduct since the original March 25th order, by "subverting the re-subdivision process", also violates the Fair Housing Act. To quote from the opinion "there appears to be a concerted effort, through stall and delay tactics, to simply outlast [the developer's] efforts while avoiding a substantive decision on their application. Construction must be completed by December 31, 2010 for the tax credits to be viable. By delaying construction a month here and a month there while plaintiffs ping-pong back and forth between the planning commission and the Parish Council, defendants may well achieve their goal." The judge ordered the Planning Commission put the resubdivision applications on its next agenda.

The judge's opinion was issued in the afternoon of August 17th. That morning, the developer was before the Planning Commission to again request approval of the resubdivisions and the resubdivisions were again denied.

The Parish put the resubdivision applications on their Planning Commission agenda for Tuesday afternoon, August 25th. We informed the Commission of the judge's order, which concluded that the resubdivisions should be considered "minor resubdivisions" and many of the concerns expressed at prior meetings were "pretextual." The Chairman of the Commission replied: "The judge doesn't say what's a major or a minor subdivision in St. Bernard Parish. Unfortunately, the Parish Planning Commission does and that's who you have to answer to."

The nonprofit and the developer petitioned the court to hold the Parish in contempt, liable for sanctions and requested that the court order the resubdivisions approved and require the Parish to issue building permits by October 1st. Last week, the Court held a hearing to discuss the issuance of the building permits and the actions of the Parish in denying subdivision approval. Referring to the comments of the Planning & Zoning Chairman, the Judge stated "I think you would agree that I do get to say if the action of the Planning Commission or the Parish Council violates the Fair Housing Act and other U.S. laws, and I did say that." and asked the Parish's counsel "How is this not contempt?"

The Judge issued her opinion last Friday, noting that the Planning & Zoning Commission had not even read her prior opinion, and in finding the Parish in contempt stated that the Parish "may disagree with this Court's orders, but under our system of laws, they must abide by those prior orders unless and until the Court of Appeals takes a different view." The Judge ordered the subdivision applications deemed approved, and laid out specific steps and timelines for the issuance of building permits, coupling those requirements with daily sanctions for each missed deadline beginning at $5,000 for the first day and increasing to $10,000 per day thereafter.

For an extensive list of articles/materials about the case -- click here

Recent Developments in Fair Housing

2009-09-12T15:45:00.001-07:00

Opposition to Affordable Housing

The "not in my backyard" (NIMBY) attitudes and actions of local homeowners and elected officials has been the most significant barrier to the production of affordable housing since the inception of the low income housing tax credit (Tax Credit) program in 1986, causing developers to seek the path of least resistance, placing the vast majority of affordable housing in "impacted areas" -- neighborhoods that are primarily minority and primarily low income -- where the surrounding homeowners are less organized and less politically savvy.

The net result is the re-concentration of low income people in limited geographic areas, which only tends to reinforce stereotypes of affordable housing. This re-concentration of poverty and ethnicity runs directly contrary to the basic tenets of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 (FHA). In the words of the US Supreme Court, in the FHA "Congress has made a strong national commitment to promote integrated housing" -- which we are clearly not accomplishing so long as state Tax Credit allocation formulas incorporate local support/opposition as a factor in determining funding, and local NIMBY factors determine where affordable housing can be located.

Recent Developments

Over the last 6 months, there have been a number of federal lawsuits over NIMBY actions by local and state governments, and the current federal administration appears to be taking a more active role in affordable housing issues in general and in specific FHA cases. Recent activity includes:

Lawsuit in which Munsch Hardt represented the developer of 4 Tax Credit developments in a Parish outside New Orleans. The Parish was adamantly opposed to these apartment complexes, passing a moratorium on apartment construction, refusing to grant subdivision approval and hampering the issuance of building permits.
Lawsuit against Westchester County, New York for certifying that it would "affirmatively further fair housing" in applying for federal funds to promote affordable housing, and then ignoring this obligation, resulting in concentration of affordable housing in impacted areas. The US Attorney's office and HUD intervened in this case, which ultimately resulted in a landmark consent decree.
Lawsuit against the Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs for FHA violations inherent in the Texas Tax Credit allocation process, resulting in over 70% of the Tax Credit apartment units in Dallas being in impacted areas.
Lawsuit against two Dallas suburbs for refusing to accept funds provided by a local nonprofit housing organization to promote the dispersion of affordable housing outside of impacted areas, with the result that the non-impacted areas of these suburbs have low amounts of affordable housing.

Fair Housing for Developers will provide summaries on these developments over the next couple of months.