Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, v. St. Bernard Parish

641 F.Supp.2d 563 (2009)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Ds had to rebuild their parish and community from near total ruin after Hurricane Katrina. Ps and Ds had entered into a Consent Order, which was approved by this Court. The consent order settled Ps' allegations that Ds violated the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Ps alleged that the ordinances were enacted with the intent and effect of discriminating against minorities. Ps a preliminary injunction to stay the operation of the so-called 'blood relative ordinance.' Ds were enjoined from violating the terms of the federal Fair Housing Act. Ds agreed that it shall not: A. Refuse to rent a dwelling unit, or otherwise make unavailable or deny a dwelling unit, to any person because of race or national origin; B. Deny minority citizens the same rights as are enjoyed by white citizens to make and enforce contracts; C. Deny minority citizens the same rights as are enjoyed by white citizens to lease, hold and otherwise enjoy real property; D. Deny any person equal protection of the law by discriminating on the basis of race and national origin in the leasing of real property; and, E. Retaliate against Ps or any other person who alleges that Ds have violated the Fair Housing Act. Ps now claim that an ordinance passed by the Council in September 2008 violated the consent order. The ordinance placed a moratorium on the construction of all multi-family housing (i.e. buildings with more than 5 units) for a period of twelve months or until the Council enacted certain zoning updates. Provident, a real estate development corporation, had initiated the process of constructing four affordable housing developments in D. Ps and Provident allege that the moratorium violated the Fair Housing Act (FHA) by making housing unavailable on the basis of race. Ps claim the moratorium was enacted with discriminatory intent and/or has a discriminatory effect in violation of the Fair Housing Act and the Consent Order. Provident developments consisted of four mixed-income rental apartment complexes with 72 units each. Thirty percent of these units will be rented at fair market rates. Fifty percent will be at 60% of Area Median Income ('AMI'). Twenty percent will be at 30% of AMI. The estimated cost of the developments is $60 million dollars. The funding for these complexes was specifically geared towards providing affordable housing, thus the income restrictions and lowered rent on 70% of the units. Twenty million dollars of the funding would come from Community Development Block Grant funds, administered by the Louisiana Recovery Development Program. Thirty million dollars would be provided in Low Income Housing Tax Credits. The final $10 million required to fund the developments was expected to come from a permanent loan from Freddie Mac. Ps moved to enforce the consent order.