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

[Westley Annis]

Craig I think you should go back to the plate and take another swing.
Appeal it!
 
Randy
 

> -----------------------------------------------------

> 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.

> 

> The current suit is a reincarnation of a previous lawsuit filed by the

> Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center over the 2006 "blood

> relative" rental ordinance. The parish eventually dropped the blood

relative

> clause and the case was settled, but the fair-housing group now argues

that

> the new housing ban, enacted last September, limits affordable rental

> housing in the mostly white parish.

> 

> Provident Realty Advisors, a Dallas real estate development group trying

to

> build four mixed-income apartment complexes in the parish, joined the

case,

> saying the building ban jeopardizes federal financing for the project.

> 

> Berrigan largely agreed with a racial impact analysis conducted by the

> housing center's expert witness, sociologist Calvin Bradford.

> 

> "They evidence repeated attempts to restrict certain types of housing in a

> parish whose housing stock, along with other structures, was largely

> obliterated," Berrigan wrote. "As was shown by Dr. Bradford ... the type

of

> housing restricted or forbidden is disproportionately utilized by

> African-Americans."

> 

> Parish officials had argued that the building ban was needed to prevent

> dense developments such as Village Square, a blighted cluster of Chalmette

> apartment complexes that fell into disarray in the years before Hurricane

> Katrina. 

> 

> In her order, Berrigan ordered St. Bernard to stop enforcing the housing

> moratorium and immediately repeal it. Berrigan will consider any damages,

> including attorney's fees, at a future hearing.