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 COLDWELL BANKER COMPANY PAYS $160,000 TO RESOLVE HOUSING DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT
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Department of Justice Filed Lawsuit after National Fair Housing Alliance Investigation Revealed Race Discrimination
February 3, 2010 – Atlanta real estate firm Coldwell Banker Joe T. Lane Realty, Inc., its successor-owner Coldwell Banker Bullard Realty Company, Inc., and the companies’ former real estate agent Rodney Lee Foreman have agreed to pay $160,000 to settle a race discrimination lawsuit filed by the United States Department of Justice and the National Fair Housing Alliance. The settlement, which awaits approval from a federal court in Atlanta, Ga., is believed to be the largest real estate sales discrimination settlement involving a single agent’s behavior in ten years. [Click here] to read the press release. |
| LAWSUIT AGAINST REAL ESTATE BROKER AND HOUSING COOPERATIVES ALLEGES RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
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On February 4, the Fair Housing Justice Center (FHJC) announced the filing of a federal race discrimination lawsuit against a real estate broker, Amelia Lewis, and two housing cooperatives, Silver Beach Gardens Corporation and Edgewater Park Owners Cooperative, Inc., located in the Throgs Neck area of the Bronx, New York. The suit alleges that both housing cooperatives utilize a policy requiring buyers to have three (3) letters of reference from existing shareholders to purchase a house in the co-ops. The suit also alleges that, while African Americans own 35% of all owner-occupied housing units in the Bronx, less than 1% of the more than 1100 single-family homes in Silver Beach Gardens and Edgewater Park are owned by African Americans.
[Click here] to read the press release.
[Click here] to read the complaint.
[Click here] to view a demographic map of the area.
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| NFHA’s Shanna L. Smith Testifies in Support of H.R. 476, the Housing Fairness Act
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On Wednesday, January 20, NFHA President and CEO Shanna L. Smith testified before the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity in support of H.R. 476, the Housing Fairness Act. This bill would increase the authorization for the Fair Housing Initiatives Program, which HUD uses to fund fair housing organizations around the country. It would also create a $20 million nationwide enforcement testing program to systemically root out housing and lending discrimination and create a $5 million research program to investigate the causes of segregation and segregation’s economic and social impacts.
Read Shanna’s testimony by clicking here.
Click here to read the testimony of other panelists.
Click here to read Huffington Post Blog "Congress Should Fast Track the Housing Fairness Act" by Gregory D. Squires, Professor of Sociology at George Washington University.
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| LANDMARK CIVIL RIGHTS AGREEMENT WILL INCREASE HOUSING ACCESSIBLITY ACROSS COUNTRY
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Nation’s Fifth-Largest Housing Developer to Retrofit Record Number of Apartments for People with Disabilities, Create National Accessibility Fund
WASHINGTON, DC – January 13, 2010 – Today, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and its member fair housing organizations in Atlanta, Ga., Melbourne, Fla., and Napa and Marin, Calif., announced a landmark agreement with the A.G. Spanos Companies to increase housing accessibility for people with disabilities. Under the agreement, the nation’s fifth largest builder of residential real estate will retrofit properties in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, and Texas at an estimated cost of $7.4 million. The agreement also establishes a $4.2 million national fund to provide retrofitting grants to people with disabilities across the country.
For the National Fair Housing Alliance's full press release, click [here].
For a fact sheet detailing aspects of the settlement and accessibility requirements under the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, click [here].
For a copy of the Stipulated Judgment in National Fair Housing Alliance, et al. v. A.G. Spanos, et al. click [here].
For a copy of the amended complaint, click [here].
To read a statement by Michael Spanos, Executive Vice President of A.G. Spanos Companies, click [here].
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| Join Our Cause!
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| THE NFHA NATIONAL HOUSING ACCESSIBILITY FUND
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As part of the settlement of NFHA, et al. v. Spanos, et al., a fund has been created to make modifications to apartments, single family homes and other dwellings to increase accessibility for persons with disabilities. NFHA will not make direct grants to individuals or families. NFHA will provide funding to local advocacy organizations in certain metropolitan areas in the United States. Grants will be available through these organizations to individuals with disabilities or parents/guardians of children with disabilities. The grant program will begin in the summer of 2010 and is expected to run through 2014. The grant funds may be used to make modifications to a residential dwelling to make it accessible or to make it habitable for persons with chemical or other environmental sensitivities.
Local organizations will work with NFHA to develop the program guidelines and distribution system for the grants. They will also be responsible for informing the community they serve about the availability of grant funds. More information about target metropolitan areas, guidelines and local advocacy organizations participating in the National Housing Accessibility Fund will appear on NFHA’s website this summer.
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 WEBINAR: FAIR HOUSING AND THE FY 2011 DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT BUDGET
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The FY2011 Department of Housing and Urban Development budget includes several notable new initiatives and programmatic developments that could significantly affect housing choice for low income families of color, and should be of great interest to advocates for fair housing around the country. Please join the Poverty & Race Research Action Council and the National Fair Housing Alliance for a moderated discussion with key HUD staff on the fair housing implications of the budget on March 10, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. EST.
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| Fair Housing and the Troubled Asset Relief Program: How TARP Funds Could (and Should) Be Used to Improve Our Neighborhoods.
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As America struggles to emerge from its current economic crisis, the requirement to affirmatively further fair housing is as important as ever. Government efforts to jumpstart the economy have involved massive spending on housing and community development. For example, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the single largest program in place to address the economic crisis, has recapitalized banks with the intention of restoring their ability to lend and has worked to provide homeowners on the brink of foreclosure with opportunities to modify their loans before it is too late. Because the recession has hit communities of color the hardest, and because the recession began in part because of failed discriminatory mortgage loans made in those communities, any attempts to ease the recession must involve explicit plans to increase residential and economic opportunities for the residents of those neighborhoods.
Click here to read NFHA's latest position paper on TARP and affirmatively furthering fair housing.
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| BRINGING FAIR HOUSING INTO THE 21ST CENTURY: 11 TECHNOLOGY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HUD
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Housing discrimination practices have evolved as technology has evolved. As the entire federal bureaucracy begins to use new media and share data under the direction of the White House's new Open Government Initiative, the National Fair Housing Alliance, MoveSmart.org, and the Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance urge HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) to combat this by utilizing media and technology more effectively. Technology can be used to advance transparency and accountability of HUD fair housing programs, to increase public participation in decision-making processes concerning regional equity, to better inform the public about housing opportunities, and to strengthen cooperative relationships between HUD and its grantees. For eleven specific recommendations on what HUD can do, please click here.
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| Predatory Lending
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Helping Consumers Fight Predatory Lending
 NFHA's public education campaign provides consumers with the information they need and the right questions to ask mortgage lenders when they are navigating the loan process.
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| UPCOMING EVENTS
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