NYC Sued Over Unlawful and Discriminatory Policing in Public Housing

Davis v. City of New York

On January 28th, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), the Legal Aid Society (LAS), and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (Paul Weiss) filed a class action lawsuit against the City of New York and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) challenging the New York City Police Department’s reckless and unlawful practice of routinely subjecting NYCHA residents and their visitors to illegal stops and false arrests purportedly to enforce trespass laws.

The complaint asserts that NYPD officers indiscriminately stop and arrest people living in or visiting NYCHA residences. As a result, people who have a legitimate and lawful reason for being on NYCHA property are routinely detained and/or arrested for criminal trespass. Sometimes they even arrest residents in their own buildings. The consequences of these unfounded trespass arrests extend beyond the initial stop or arrest. They include loss of employment, income, missed medical appointments and separation of families.

“Our clients are New Yorkers stopped and arrested while trying to go about their everyday lives. They are visiting friends; dropping off children; or caring for elderly or sick relatives,” said Steven Banks, LAS Attorney-in-Chief. “NYCHA building residents do not surrender their rights when they sign a lease, and they should not be arrested and drive up the cost of the criminal justice system.”

Notably, these sweeps and checkpoints are only implemented in communities of color, such as NYCHA residences. As a result, New York City’s African-American and Latino residents bear the brunt of the NYPD’s unlawful activities. Indeed, evidence shows that, city-wide, African Americans are arrested for trespass almost ten times more often than whites. Furthermore, when the predominantly minority NYCHA residence is located in a mostly white or gentrifying neighborhood, the disparity in arrest rates between the building and the surrounding area increases.

“The effects of crime exact a particularly high toll on the city’s African-American and Latino residents, but the NYPD’s pattern of flagrant constitutional violations compounds rather than alleviates the communities’ injuries,” said John Payton, LDF President and Director-Counsel. “In our nation, there are some means of law enforcement which are simply not lawful.”

The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York is asking the court to declare the City’s policies and practices unconstitutional and order that they be halted immediately, as well as award compensatory damages to the plaintiffs.

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The National Fair Lending Training Academy offering free training sessions for fair housing advocates

FREE! NFHTA Regional Fair Lending Training

The following courses will be offered at no cost to the public:

Lending Discrimination: What you need to know (2 Days)

Financial Aspects of Buying a Home (3 Days)

Preventing Foreclosure (3 Days)

Buyer Beware (2 Days)

These courses will be offered in the following locations:

Cleveland, OH - details and registration
Ft Worth, TX - details and registration
Los Angeles - details and registration
Miami, FL - details and registration
Philadelphia, PA - details and registration
Phoenix, AZ - details and registration
Salt Lake City, UT - details and registration
Stockton, CA - details and registration

For more information contact Maqueda Fuller (202) 314-3422

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NAACP Issues Report on Discriminatory Lending Practices

This report, "Discrimination and Mortgage Lending in America: A Summary of the Disparate Impact of Subprime Mortgage Lending on African Americans," provides an overview of the NAACP's groundbreaking lawsuit against 13 of the nation's largest mortgage lenders and the impact of predatory lending on African Americans throughout the nation."

Download the Report

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NAACP wins first court battle against mortgage lenders

A federal judge last week allowed the NAACP to proceed with a race discrimination lawsuit against 15 home mortgage lenders nationwide. The judge denied the lenders’ motion seeking to dismiss the NAACP landmark lawsuit. The court also denied the lenders’ request for immunity from future lawsuits for their lending practices.

The mortgage lenders must now hand over documents that will reveal their mortgage policies and practices.

NAACP Interim General Counsel Angela Ciccolo said, “The NAACP brought this suit as part of its longstanding demand that offending lenders stop discriminatory practices and bring their activities into compliance with federal law. We look forward to now presenting our case to a jury.”

The lawsuit cites evidence that African American homeowners who received mortgage loans had a more than 30 percent greater likelihood of being issued a higher rate sub-prime loan than white borrowers with the same qualifications.

Detroit Branch NAACP Exec. Director, Heaster Wheeler, describes the court’s ruling as a “major victory for African Americans and communities of color.”

He told the Michigan Citizen that the decision holds further significance in light of the recent bailout packages prepared by Congress for the purpose of addressing "toxic loans."

“When America wanted to think that predatory lending was only a problem in certain communities, they ignored it,” Wheeler stated. “Mortgage companies will now be forced to look at their practices and restore some semblance of fairness.”

Wheeler says that predatory lending is an expression of new forms of racism that have developed from disproportionate separation from economic opportunities.

Attorney Jerry Goldberg of Moratorium NOW!, told the Michigan Citizen that the case would have a huge impact on the lending industry. The lawsuit leads to the question of damages to millions of homeowners who have been victims of destructive policies.

“There would certainly seem to be a damage component,” Goldberg told the Michigan Citizen. “All subprime loans need to be rewritten and reassessed.”

According to Goldberg, Detroit leads the nation in subprime, or high interest, loans with more than 85 percent of all mortgage agreements falling into that category.

The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for Central District of California.

Lenders named in the suit include: Accredited Home Lenders, Inc., Ameriquest Mortgage Co., Bear Sterns Residential Mortgage Corp., Chase Bank USA, Citimortgage, First Franklin Financial Corp., First Tennessee Bank, Fremont Investment & Loan, GMAC Mortgage Group, LLC, GMAC ResCap, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Long Beach Mortgage, Option One Mortgage Corp., SunTrust Mortgage and WMC Mortgage, LLC.

Tech Tags: Mortgage Stimulus Financial+Crisis Subprime NAACP Ciccolo

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The Mississippi State Conference NAACP Files Suit Against HUD Over Diversion of Hurricane Recovery Funds

Nearly $600 Million Meant for Affordable Housing Diverted to Port Expansion Project

(Jackson, Miss.) - The Mississippi State Conference NAACP, Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center and several individual residents today filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in Washington, D.C. against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The suit challenges HUDs approval of a plan submitted by the State to divert $600 million of federal hurricane recovery funds designated for affordable housing to finance the expansion of the Port of Gulfport.

"It is unfortunate that money earmarked for the recovery victims of Hurricane Katrina is now being taken away for the purpose of business development. Our suit contends that this is contrary to the primary purpose of the Congressional appropriation and violates the requirements of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program" said Derrick Johnson, State President of Mississippi NAACP.

Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Congress appropriated approximately $5.5 billion of the emergency recovery funds to Mississippi to address the critical housing needs in the hurricane damaged area, specifically affordable housing. Administration of this funding was to be overseen by HUD under the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, which includes requirements that use of these funds conform to the Fair Housing Act and be used primarily to benefit low- and moderate-income people.

The suit seeks a declaration by the court that HUD was required to review and assess the State of Mississippi's port expansion plan to determine whether the proposal complied with Fair Housing Act and low-to-moderate income benefit requirements. Additionally, the suit states and that HUD violated its duties by accepting the port expansion plan without conducting such a review. It seeks an order from the court prohibiting HUD from releasing or approving the obligation of any of the nearly $600 million in CDBG funds.

Included in the complaint are claims that HUD has also approved several waivers of the requirements, for programs totaling $4 billion, that 50 percent of the funds benefit low- and moderate-income people, leaving only half of the remaining $1.4 billion targeted for those persons. As a result, HUD has authorized Mississippi to drop its commitment to lower-income households affected by Katrina from 50 percent to 13 percent. In Harrison, Hancock and Jackson counties, approximately 65 percent of the housing units exposed to the storm surge and more than 57 percent of the units exposed to flooding were occupied by households with incomes below the U.S. median household income level.

"This is in essence creating another disaster, only it's man-made. It's unconscionable that HUD would approve a plan that neglects tax-paying citizens", said James Crowell, a member of the NAACP National Board of Director and President of the Biloxi Branch and Katrina survivor. "The return of the $600 million to the housing budget would make it possible for our friends and neighbors to have somewhere to live," continued Crowell. "That is why this lawsuit is important for those of us who are still trying to recover from the impact of Hurricane Katrina."

"Through this lawsuit, we intend to enforce HUD's duty to ensure there will be housing choice for the thousands of households that Mississippi does not want to help," said Reilly Morse, Mississippi Center for Justice senior attorney. "The diversion of funds intended to rebuild safe, affordable housing for low-income, elderly and disabled people has shattered the promise of making affordable housing the priority of this recovery effort."

Attorneys from Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo, PC are working in conjunction with the Mississippi Center for Justice and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to represent the plaintiffs pro bono.


For more information contact: Derrick Johnson - Mississippi State Conference President at derrickjohnson@hotmail.com

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Sustainable Neighborhoods Webcast this Wednesday - real-time updates available on Twitter

On Wednesday, I will be participating in a webinar entitled: "Sustainable Places, Smart Neighborhoods - Latest Trends in Rebuilding Vibrant Places" This is a part of the 2008-2009 State Policy Webcast Series.

I will be broadcasting real-time updates from the webinar via twitter. To receive the updates, simply visit www.twitter.com/kevinmyles and click the button under my profile marked "Follow"

The Webinar will address the question; how can we go the next step and make neighborhoods a “best” place to live where transportation, housing, corridors, streetscapes, and infrastructure are all linked to a great quality of life?


When: November 19
1:00 - 2:30 pm CST

Panel:
Barbara McCann - National Complete Streets Campaign
Margot Pedroso - Safe Routes to School Partnership
Robert Ping - Safe Routes to School Partnership
Julie Seward - LISC - Moderator

Tech Tags: neighborhood, sustainability, twitter, NAACP

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NAACP calls on Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, to use the power and provisions of the Bail-Out legislation to prevent foreclosures

 THE COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT IS KEY TO NEIGHBORHOOD STABILITY

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

THE ISSUE:

Under the massive financial services bail out legislation that passed Congress and was signed by the President on October 3, 2008, the US Department of the Treasury was given broad authority to create a plan to mitigate foreclosures and encourage servicers of mortgages to modify loans.

 

The NAACP is calling on the Treasury to aggressively use all its new authority to stop foreclosures. Specifically, we are urging the Secretary of the Treasury to:

• Place a moratorium on home foreclosures for at least 9 months to allow homeowners time to find and take remedial action;
• Require a homeowner or servicer to pursue specific loss mitigation activities such as waiving late fees and other charges, establishing an affordable and sustainable repayment plan or loan modification, forbearance or a short refinancing before a home may be foreclosed;
• Vigorously apply Community Reinvestment Act requirements to any bank merger that may arise as a result of the bail-out;
• Buy servicing rights, so that Treasury can break the modification logjam presently created by understaffed and sometimes uncooperative servicers;
• Buy and modify at-risk whole loans where possible;
• Continue and expand efforts to modify loans within the control of Fannie and Freddie Mac;
• Encourage servicers to engage in more sustainable modifications, including conditioning purchasing of securities only from lenders/servicers meeting these standards;
• Use the new guarantee authority to provide guarantees to sustainable modifications; and
• Purchase second mortgages to gain control of them, so that they can be consolidated with the first mortgages and restructured.

The American foreclosure crisis is being driven by the high number of predatory loans made within the last few years, and numerous studies have shown definitively that African Americans of all income levels were more than twice as likely to receive high-cost loans. This means that, though no community has been exempted, African Americans and other racial and ethnic minority Americans are being disproportionately affected by the foreclosure epidemic; it is hurting our families and our communities at a much greater rate. In order to effectively address the unacceptably high foreclosure rate we must give homeowners more protection and control; we must level the playing field between homeowners and financial institutions.

We have seen that when financial institutions are not required to negotiate loan modifications they do not occur at a rate necessary to adequately address our national problem. We need to mandate that lenders enter into negotiations that may result in a modified loan in which homeowners are obliged to pay a reasonable, sustainable market rate for their mortgage.

Please click here to view the entire Action Alert.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS IMPORTANT MATTER!!!

If you have any questions, call Hilary Shelton at the Washington Bureau at (202) 463-2940.

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Crucial NAACP-supported House Foreclosure Relief Bill passes the House; Senate to act by Saturday July 26th

ISSUE UPDATE
DATE: July 25, 2008
TO: Concerned Parties
FROM: Hilary O. Shelton, Director, Washington Bureau

OMNIBUS BILL WOULD PROVIDE $300 BILLION TO HELP AVOID FORECLOSURES, ESTABLISH A TRUST FUND TO PROVIDE LOW-INCOME HOUSING, PROVIDE $4 BILLION TO STATES & LOCALITIES TO DEAL WITH FORECLOSED PROPERTIES

THE ISSUE: On Wednesday, July 23, 2008 the U.S. House of Representatives passed, by a margin of 272 yeas to 152 nays, an omnibus housing bill that is intended to address a myriad of housing needs throughout the Nation for years to come. Specifically the bill, H.R. 3221, the "Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008" takes a number of crucial steps in the right direction to address a housing and financial crisis that is of profound concern to the NAACP communities nationwide.

Key aspects of H.R. 3221 include:

• Nearly $4 billion in Community Development Block Grants for communities to purchase and rehabilitate foreclosed properties in hard-hit areas, and return affordable housing to those who need it most, while reducing urban blight, safety hazards, and drains on limited local resources in the process;
• The creation of an Affordable Housing Trust Fund to provide affordable rental housing for people who need it the most;
• A new nationwide licensing and registration system for loan originators that will greatly improve the oversight of a brokerage system that, in many cases, has been a major contributor to the scourge of predatory lending tactics; and
• Expanded authority for the Federal Housing Administration to help borrowers refinance into more affordable loans.
  

As is the case with any omnibus legislation on such a complex issue, many difficult compromises and decisions were made in the name of moving forward. On the whole, however, the NAACP believes that the bill will do far more good than harm. Our primary concern with H.R. 3221 is in what it does not include: reforms that level the playing field between borrowers and lenders. Sadly, this legislation does not address the fact that lenders currently hold all of the cards when dealing with struggling homeowners. Specifically, the NAACP currently supports legislation (H.R. 5670) to require that mortgage servicers work with borrowers to try to avoid foreclosure, as well as a bill (H.R. 6076) to impose a cooling out period to allow homeowners time to try to modify their mortgages and stay in their homes and legislation (H.R. 3609) allowing the courts to try to mediate a modification. Such mandatory foreclosure prevention policies remain absolutely vital to resolving our nation's foreclosure crisis.

So now we must congratulate our elected representatives on the legislation about to become law, but also urge them to go further and to pass legislation to level the playing field between borrowers and lenders...
Thank you all for your attention to this urgent matter!!!

Click HERE to find contact information for YOUR Representatives

Tech Tags: Housing Mortgage+crisis H.R.3221 H.R.5670 H.R.6076 H.R.3609

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One Step Closer to mortgage relief - A message from NAACP Interim President Dennis Hayes

To all this may concern,

I'm writing today to share some good news in the NAACP's fight to protect the rights of minority homeowners who may have been targeted for higher interest subprime loans. After months of hard work by the NAACP's legal team, we have generated serious momentum in our class action lawsuit against the biggest offenders.

Last week, the Los Angeles Federal Court fast tracked our class action lawsuit against the 18 mortgage firms that we believe have disproportionately targeted minority homeowners for predatory loans. This victory could not have come soon enough for homeowners who are facing an unstable economy and a declining mortgage market.

Predatory lending stymies families' attempts at wealth building, ruins people's lives and, given the disproportionate number of minority homeowners who are targeted by predatory lenders, decimates whole communities. The NAACP is demanding that the lending industry commit to restructuring mortgages for borrowers who are at risk of foreclosure.

While there are currently efforts underway by the government and the mortgage industry to reduce the impact of these subprime loans, none of the remedies go far enough to protect minority homeowners who bear an unfair share of the financial burden. The NAACP legal team's victory in expediting the lawsuit brings us one step closer to justice for minority homeowners who are trapped by the unfair distribution of subprime loans.

Know that your continued and strong support of the NAACP is what makes our work possible. We hope this victory will serve as a prelude to many more.


Sincerely,

Dennis Courtland Hayes
Interim President & CEO

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