[StBernard] Federal judge rules against St. Bernard Parish in multi-family housing lawsuit

[Westley Annis]

How come they didn't go after N. O. East for blocking the apartment complex
proposed to go by Eastover ?  Is it because their council woman is black ? 


-----Original Message-----
Federal judge rules against St. Bernard Parish in multi-family housing
lawsuit
by Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
Thursday March 26, 2009, 9:55 AM
A federal judge has ruled in favor of a fair housing group that claimed a
St. Bernard Parish building ban unfairly discriminated against minorities
trying to rent in the parish.

U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan has ordered the parish to lift its
moratorium on construction of multi-family housing, paving the way for a
Dallas developer to begin construction of four 72-unit mixed-income
apartment complexes in Chalmette.

In the court order, issued last night, Berrigan cited plaintiffs' arguments
that the housing ban would have a disparate impact on African-Americans. She
noted several statistics from an expert witness brought on by the housing
group: that African-Americans are 85 percent more likely to live in
buildings with more than five units than whites, and that African-Americans
are twice as likely as whites to live in rental housing.

Berrigan also noted that the building ban had a "striking" similarity to a
previous building ban enacted after Hurricane Katrina and the parish's
"blood relative" rental ordinance, which required homeowners to obtain
Parish Council approval in order to rent their homes to anyone who was not a
blood relative.