Court Blocks New York Housing Development Favoring Hasidic Residents Over Neighboring Blacks and Hispanics

A New York state trial court ruled yesterday in a housing discrimination case that pits the Hasidic Jewish community in the New York City neighborhood of Williamsburg against black and Hispanic residents of the neighboring Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. According to a New York Civil Liberties Union press release, the court's issuance of a preliminary injunction against proceeding with the current plans for an affordable-housing project on city-owned land in the Broadway Triangle area may have implications for all future affordable housing projects in the city. In Broadway Triangle Community Coalition v. Bloomberg, (NY Sup. Ct., Jan. 4, 2012), the court held that the housing plans would perpetuate racial discrimination and disproportionately impact minority racial groups in violation of the Federal Fair Housing Act. Current plans involved construction of low rise buildings containing numerous large apartments, instead of taller buildings containing smaller apartments.  The current plans would favor the white Hasidic Yiddish-speaking community that generally has large families, and for whom taller buildings are unattractive because of their religious need to avoid using elevators on the Sabbath. Black and Hispanic residents of the area more often need smaller apartments. Reuters reports on the decision. (See prior related posting.)