Fair Housing Month Celebrated
BY RICHARD GENTILVISO

As part of National Fair Housing Month, the NYC Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) staff discussed the protections individuals have under the city Human Rights Law and the services the commission provides regarding fair housing issues, accessibility for the elderly and disabled and mortgage counseling and predatory loan prevention with Queens Borough President Helen Marshall and members of the Queens Borough Cabinet during the April meeting. Seated during the commission's presentation (l. to r,) are: Marshall, CCHR Queens Community Service Center Director Katie Bracken and CCHR Human Rights Specialists Robert Tilley and Isaac Parsee.

"The Commission on Human Rights cares, so law-breakers, beware," said Robert Tilley. April is National Fair Housing Month, and Tilley, a Human Rights Specialist with the New York City Commission on Human Rights, was one of several speakers commemorating it at the April meeting of the Queens Borough Cabinet.

"The New York City Commission on Human Rights is the law enforcement agency for fair housing," said Katie Bracken, director of the Queens Community Service Center. It is against the law to discriminate in housing based on: religion, marital status, familial status (families with children), lawful occupation, sexual orientation, race, color, national origin, alien and/or citizen status, partnership status, disability, age or gender.

Tilley said Fair Housing has been on the books in New York City since April 1958, predating the enactment of the federal Fair Housing Law by a decade. In Project Equal Access, a special program for people with disabilities, Tilley outlined how the commission can act on their behalf to help them with their special housing needs.

"We've been successful," said Tilley, regarding the enforcement of the Human Rights Law as it applies to the concept of "reasonable accommodation". Renters and apartment owners with disabilities may need a reasonable accommodation to live in their building safely and independently and take advantage of the services and facilities available to all residents, such as laundry or recreation, according to Commission guidelines.

"Home ownership is a goal to which every American aspires," said Isaac Parsee, also a New York City Commission Human Rights Specialist about another special program: Foreclosure Prevention. "Predatory lending has turned homeownership into a nightmare," he said.

The practice of subprime loans, or loans made to borrowers with low credit ratings is at the root of a rising number of foreclosures. Parsee said 15.1 percent of all home loans made between 1998 and 2006 were subprime loans, mostly refinancing loans. This has resulted in 2.4 million lost homes with a net loss of homeownership for 1 million families. "As families are ruined, whole neighborhoods are imperiled," he said.

"There has been a breakdown in the system [of lending]," said Mark Winston Griffith, co-director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Agency Project (NEDAP) that works to eliminate discriminatory practices in minority communities.

For years, the main problem faced in minority communities was redlining, or the practice of refusing loans in those communities. Now people with bad credit or no credit at all are sought out for loans. "People are given loans, regardless of what their income or credit history is", said Winston Griffith. "Banks no longer hold on to loans for 20 or 30 years."

Instead, brokers package deals with incentives to charge the highest prices possible and lenders sell loans on secondary markets. No one is actually concerned about what the product is or the effect it's having on the person who took the loan, he said.

Showing a dotted map indicating foreclosure patterns in Queens for 2006, Winston Griffith said, "Queens is important because there is a correlation between people of color and where these [sub prime] mortgages are." According to that data, 50 percent of mortgages held by African Americans and another 40 percent by Hispanics are subprime.

"I think in my district we probably have the highest rate of foreclosure in Queens County," said Yvonne Reddick, district manager for Community Board 12, including the communities of Jamaica, South Jamaica, Hollis, St. Albans, South Ozone Park, Addisleigh Park, and Springfield Gardens.

Reddick said people have been granted loans with payments higher than their monthly income. "I don't know how this is allowed."

To reach the New York City Commission on Human Rights in Queens call 718-886-6162. NEDAP has a legal assistance hotline at 718- 246-3279.