California Housing Discrimination Case Settled

Lookout News reported on Friday that a settlement has been reached in a complex group of lawsuits in Santa Monica, California growing out of charges that a group known as Or Khaim Hashalom (OKH) was evicting tenants from a rent-controlled apartment building because of their race, religion and national origin in order to build luxury condominiums for Jewish persons from the Middle East. The building is located in an exclusive part of the city. The city also says that OKH falsely claimed to be a religious organization. The city had designated the building an historic landmark in order to keep OKH from demolishing it. (See prior posting.) Under the terms of the settlement, OKH will adopt a comprehensive fair housing policy, will return the apartments to the jurisdiction of the Rent control Board at their former rates, and will keep the building on the rental market for at least three years (with an additional one year grace period for current tenants). The settlement allows evicted tenants to move back and provides for mandatory mediation with tenants over damages.