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CENTER WINS UNPRECEDENTED DE-SEGREGATIONCENTER WINS UNPRECEDENTED DE-SEGREGATIONSETTLEMENTSETTLEMENT

Westchester to pay $62.5 million and build hundreds of affordable housing units designed to affirmatively further fair housing.

Westchester County will have to pay more than $60 million, develop at least 750 housing units in the most residentially segregated white municipalities in the County, and institute meaningful housing de-segregation policies, all in connection with a settlement of a federal lawsuit that had been brought against the County on behalf of the United States by the Anti-Discrimination Center (“ADC”).

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NEWS & COMMENTARYNEWS & COMMENTARYFEATURESFEATURES

Age discrimination claimants under City Human Rights Law protected from narrow federal standard

01/20/2010

A federal judge has ruled that the restrictive new federal proof standard in age discrimination litigation -- "but for" causation -- does not apply to the New York City Human Rights Law because the Local Civil Rights Restoration Act made clear that the local law is intended to be interpreted independently, with federal law serving only as a floor, not a ceiling.  As such, age claims under the City HRL will continue to use the "motivating factor" test.

HUD Official Promises Broader Effort on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing

01/21/2010

In testimony to a Congressional Committee, Assistant Secretary Trasviña promises "a Department-wide commitment to incorporate our mandate to affirmatively furthering fair housing into all of our work so that we can fulfill our shared goal of truly integrated and balanced living patterns," and asserts that HUD is "working together" with Westchester County to "ensure" that the Settlement Order that emerged from ADC's false claims case against the County "produces real change in Westchester."

Westchester Legislators Still Looking to Undercut Settlement Order

11/30/2009

A delegation from the Westchester County Board of Legislators met with the court-appointed Monitor on November 25th.  Despite the fact that members of the group pushed for at least one fundamental segregation-perpetuating change to the Settlement Order, the Monitor praised what he called the delegation's "continued commitment to this process."  The exchange highlights a troubling dynamic that has apparently taken hold.

HIgh Cost of Segregation

11/20/2009
New report from Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy explores relationship between racial segregation and subprime lending.

2nd Circuit: City HRL Fully Independent

10/06/2009
Loeffler v. Staten Island University Hospital, decided October 6, 2009.  "City HRL claims have typically been treated as co-extensive with state and federal counterparts....However, the New York City Council has rejected such equivalence. The Local Civil Rights Restoration Act of 2005, N.Y.C. Local Law No. 85 (2005) (the “Restoration Act”) amended the City HRL in a variety of ways, including by confirming the legislative intent to abolish 'parallelism' between the City HRL and federal and state anti-discrimination law." 

What Will HUD Do?

09/23/2009

County Legislature Gives Final Approvals to Westchester Desegregation Agreement, But Major Compliance Issues Loom from the Outset

Center Rebuts Wall Street Journal's Anti-Desegregation Editorial

by Craig Gurian, 08/19/09

ADC's response, as published in the Journal.

Shocking Secret of Westchester Settlement Order Revealed!!!

08/15/2009

Find out how many housing units that the Settlement Order reserves for African-Americans.

Broad Sweep of Disability Provisions of City Human Rights Law Clarified and Affirmed

08/01/2009
Appellate Division recognizes that the disability provisions of the City Human Rights Law have a "very different conception and architecture" than the State and federal counterparts to those provisions, holdiing, among other things, that there is no category of accommodation that there is no accommodation that is categorically excluded from the universe of reasonable accommodation.

Bye, bye middle class

02/19/2009

New report from Center for an Urban Future finds a wide gap between the means of most New Yorkers and the costs of living in the city.

 

Landmark Appellate Decision Eliminates "Severe or Pervasive" Rule; Vindicates Broad Sweep of City Human Rights Law

The Appellate Division, First Department has issued the first appellate ruling that takes seriously the obligation to interpret the provisions of the City Human Rights Law independently and liberally in order to fulfill the "uniquely broad and remedial" purposes of the law.