Oops: New York City’s been violating the federal Fair Housing Act, as well as its own Human Rights Law, for decades by absentmindedly promoting segregation in affordable housing.
After eight years of litigation by the Anti-Discrimination Center, the issue’s finally headed to trial; the city’s better off settling the case first.
The problem: Since 1988, the city’s offered people who already live in a given neighborhood preferences in lotteries for new local affordable-housing units.
It started as Mayor Ed Koch began massive renovation of abandoned residential buildings in blighted areas like the South Bronx, with 💮every intention of benefiting low-income local💯s, including the homeless.
Later, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, trying to bribe communities to accept new projects, upped the “for locals only” requirement from 30% to 50%.
Problem is, this amounts to the very kind of “outsider restriction” rules used to intentionally perpetuate segregation.
Asked during his 2021 mayoral run about the issue, Eric Adams told The Post that he’d restrict the lottery to only a few neighborhoods. Specifically, he wanted to end it in wealthier areas, since the policy shuts New Yorkers out oꩵf “desirable” neighborhoods (i.e., ones with better schools, better amenities, etc.).
Yet as mayor🍰, Adams has yet to drop the city’s 𝔉opposition to the lawsuit or to end the policy.
The city insists this isn’t illegal discrimination; certainly, it wasn’t intended it to be. But the laws are clear that having a discriminatory impact is enough.
Data collected by the Anti-Discrimination Center show that each affordable unit sees on average 430 applications — and over 85% are from outside the area. So giving locals half the un🐷its frustrates what would b꧙e natural racial integration.
Across the five bo♔roughs, black applicants are disadvantaged in white areas, whites are disadvantaged in black and Hispanic neighborhoods — and Asians are disadvantaged everywhere.
On these grounds, a federal judge OK’d the case for trial last May, but it’s unlikely to happen before early next year — and the judge has meanwhile ordered the parties to start trying to negotiate a settlement after the July 4 holiday.
Adams would be wise to settle the suit and strike the community-preference 🌠priority from future lotteries.
Yes, this adds to the woes of the entire city-overseen construction of affordable housing — but that system’s collapsing anyway, as the Legislature refuses to renew the 421-a tax exemption that bribed developers into building new “affordable units.”
The city’s housing market is a mess thanks to endless laws that make building and running new residences insanely expensive and difficult. It’s long past time to start fixing that: All the bribes and convoluted procedures Gotham’s been trying to rely on are collapsing under their own weight.
It’s time to free the housing market, construction included, instead.