| Yorkville Co-op
Discriminated Against South Asians Pays $25000
No More Alienage Checks
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Oct 11 – Counsel for The Forge
housing development, built in
Long Island City, Queens in
2017 by Gotham & Brause
Realty, and designed by
FXFOWLE, on June 8 said that
fair housing lawyers can't
visit to inspect due to
COVID-19. Story below.
In other
news for the Fair Housing
Justice Center, on September
24 the New York State Division
on Human Rights (NYSDHR)
approved a conciliation
agreement resolving a housing
discrimination complaint filed
by an apartment owner and
shareholder at a 20-unit
housing cooperative located in
Yorkville in
Manhattan. In
2019, the shareholder who had
been attempting to sublease
his apartment filed a housing
discrimination complaint with
the Fair Housing Justice
Center (FHJC). On October 1,
2019, the shareholder filed an
administrative complaint with
NYSDHR alleging that
respondents, Refco Management
Co., Inc., 448 E. 84th Street
Owners Corp, and a member of
the co-op board, Janet Lytle,
discriminated against him
based on the race and national
origin of applicants to sublet
his apartment. Specifically,
the complaint alleged that the
respondents refused to approve
several qualified applicants
who were Pakistani, Indian,
and Vietnamese. After the
shareholder complained to
respondents, they conditioned
approval of a subletter’s
application on prior approval
of visits from her relatives
and imposed retaliatory fines
on the
shareholder.
The respondents agreed to pay
the complainant $25,000 and to
withdraw all fines, totaling
$2,000. In addition, the
respondents agreed to adopt a
general fair housing policy
and modify their application
process for sub-tenants,
guarantors, and visitors to
include: Standardized
procedures for obtaining
applicant references; No
requests for applications to
verify citizenship, alienage
status or term/length of
lawful residency; No
requirement to register
visitors in advance of a
visit; Visitors staying 10 or
more consecutive days may be
asked to provide photo ID and
sign house rules only, but
will not be asked to complete
an application.
In
June U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of
New York Judge Gregory H.
Woods held a proceeding. Inner
City Press covered it.
Judge Woods
expressed scepticism at the
defendant's request to delay,
noting that law firms can
re-open in Phase Two, and have
not basis to not participate
in an inspection. Inner City
Press will continue to cover
this case.
It is Fair
Housing Justice Center, Inc.
v. Gotham Organization Inc. et
al., 19-cv-10547 (Woods).
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2019 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com for
|
,
