[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish fair housing case goes another round, more fees awarded

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish fair housing case goes another round, more fees awarded
 By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, Staff Writer 


A federal judge has granted an all encompassing judgment against St. Bernard
Parish in the long-running housing discrimination case over its denials
under former-Parish President Craig Taffaro's administration of mixed-income
and multifamily housing. The judgement also orders the parish to pay about
$625,000 in another round of fees, cost and damages related to that case.

The ruling also entitles the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center
and Provident Realty Advisors to additional attorneys' fees, costs and for
damages due to the parish's violations of the Fair Housing Act and due to
the parish's and other named parities contempt of earlier court rulings. A
magistrate judge will determine those additional monetary figures.

Provident built four multifamily and mixed-income apartments in Chalmette
that immediately generated public opposition when the 288 apartment units
were first proposed in 2008.

The recent $625,153 in attorneys' fees, costs and overall damages is on top
of about $2 million that stands against the apartments already have cost the
parish, including about $1.5 million in previous attorney and settlement
fees paid out to Provident and the New Orleans fair housing center, along
with about $500,000 of the parish's own attorneys' fees.

U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan has found the Taffaro administration and
the previous Parish Council in contempt of court six times in 2009 and 2011,
generally stating their opposition fit discriminatory patterns the parish
had exhibited since Hurricane Katrina.

Already nearing $3 million, the cost of that opposition could climb higher
still, as the U.S. Department of Justice, the New Orleans fair housing
center and a third party, the NOLA Capital Group, all still have pending
cases against the parish that in part are based on at least 10 complainants
allegedly harmed by multifamily and rental restrictions since Katrina.

The Department of Justice suit cites the parish's repeated attempts to limit
affordable multifamily and rental housing, in part by establishing an
onerous permit-approval process for single-family rentals and eliminating
wide swaths of multifamily zoning.


And specifically in terms of actions taken by the parish in 2011 related to
the Provident apartments, Berrigan last week ruled that various parities
were in contempt of a February 2008 earlier consent decree that had, among
other things, prohibited the parish from refusing to rent a dwelling unit,
or otherwise make unavailable or deny a dwelling unit, to any person because
of race.

Berrigan also dismissed the suit by Chateau Lafitte Homeowners Association
and various St. Bernard residents, filed in March 2011 in an attempt to stop
construction of the four Provident apartment complexes. She ruled that
motion mute and dismissed it with prejudice.