Department of Justice enforces fair housing in St.Bernard

By Zoe Sullivan
Contributing Writer

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, St. Bernard Parish passed an ordinance restricting rental of housing to blood-related family members. The move aimed to prevent African Americans from moving into that community. The parish lost a lawsuit claiming that the blood-relative ordinance violated the Fair Housing Act, which was brought by the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC). Now, six years later, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has stepped in to bring a suit against the parish once again for violating the Fair Housing Act with racial discrimination.

The DOJ complaint aims to enforce the Fair Housing Act, and “remedy the Parish’s multi-year campaign to limit rental housing opportunities for African Americans in St. Bernard Parish under the pretext of post-Hurricane Katrina recovery planning.”

This is just the latest in an ongoing battle that has reached the attention even of the New York Times editorial page. Last year, the Times published a highly critical editorial focusing on St. Bernard Parish’s housing practices.

“This has been going on for a very long time, and the truth is that we are pretty disappointed that it’s come to the point of having to file another lawsuit,” James Perry, executive director of the GNOFHAC, told The Louisiana Weekly. “We had been involved with pretty intense, but we thought promising, negotiations to address these issues. And the other day they completely collapsed. And as a result, the Department of Justice decided to file suit.”

Perry explained that this case actually concerns a separate issue from the ones that have received attention in the recent past. This lawsuit addresses the misuse of the parish’s permitting process.

According to Perry, St. Bernard Parish officials spoke openly at public meetings about how residents could apply for permits to rent and, because of the restrictions on the number of rental units allowed in a given area, prevent others from doing so. Perry says this was a strategy aimed at preventing homeowners who wanted to rent to African Americans.

Investigating incidents where African Americans were denied rental opportunities in the parish, Perry explained that the GNOFHAC found 10 separate similar cases that involved the mis-use of the permitting process.

The new St. Bernard Parish President declined a request for comment by The Louisiana Weekly. A parish employee explained that his attorney had advised him not to comment on the case at the moment. Perry remarked that he hopes the new leadership reflects a desire among St. Bernard voters to move past these issues and to put the policies of the previous administration to rest.

This article was originally published in the February 6, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper