USA Today article - Housing case brings race back to court

[JNA]

That was the print headline.
New Jersey battle over blighted area could lead to landmark ruling on discrimination
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...ights/2735317/

HIGHLIGHTS:

At issue is whether the Fair Housing Act requires blacks and other minorities to prove intentional racial discrimination in sales, rentals, zoning or lending practices, or whether a policy's "disparate impact" is enough to make it illegal.

opponents -- including developers, bankers, insurers and conservative groups -- have challenged that interpretation, noting that the law does not refer to disparate impact.

hopeful this case will end .....with an out-of-court settlement in which minority residents are compensated. That would be in Mount Holly's interest as well, she says, because litigation "hurts a community's reputation."

Mt Holly earned an reputation from an earlier landmark housing court case already.

[dvdneal]

I've always been fortunate to work in places where fair housing doesn't seem to be a big issue. Just my random thought, I think a lot of these cases aren't about racial discrimination, but more about financial discrimination. It all goes back to the unnamed "those" people. I think it would be sad to see the court define this by pure discrimination though. It would make life hard for people that already have it hard enough.

[MacheteJames]

I've always been fortunate to work in places where fair housing doesn't seem to be a big issue. Just my random thought, I think a lot of these cases aren't about racial discrimination, but more about financial discrimination. It all goes back to the unnamed "those" people. I think it would be sad to see the court define this by pure discrimination though. It would make life hard for people that already have it hard enough.

Are you serious? You do know that there have been documented cases in which individuals of different racial and ethnic backgrounds have been sent out as fair housing testers, all of whom had financials and references that checked out, were well dressed and groomed, and experienced completely different outcomes, right?. These cases are usually VERY much about racial discrimination.

I'm curious, where in the US is fair housing not an issue? There are all-white parts of New England or the midwest where I'd guess it's less relevant, but on the heavily populated coasts, this stuff is a big (and ever-present) deal.

[dvdneal]

I should clarify a little. I'm looking at the destruction of a large amount of affordable housing to be replaced by majority market rate housing. I would think there is an affordable housing plan in place to help protect residents. Does this case fall more under violation of the housing plan or individual rejection by the housing authority like your example? Of course since my work has been mostly in fly over states where affordable housing hasn't been an issue I might be wrong. My experience toward discrimination just seems to be targeted toward income more than race on the large decisions (not so on individual decisions), although there is sadly still too much of both out there.