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- Latest news item posted on 01/19/2012 at 03:04 PM
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- Please welcome our new partner, the Fair Housing Council of Suburban Philadelphia.
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Settlement permits shaded area for toddler
(PITTSBURGH, Pa., Jan. 19, 2012)
-- Jonah Snyder will be able to play in the shade under an awning at his parents' Summerset at Frick Park home in Squirrel Hill after all.
His family finalized a settlement in U.S. District Court Wednesday with the Summerset Neighborhood Association that will allow Daniel and Jaime Snyder to build the awning. Jonah, now 2, has congenital glaucoma, a disease that makes him sensitive to light, but the neighborhood association had said the awning they wanted to build over their second-floor porch didn't meet neighborhood design requirements.
The family sued in federal court, and the Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations sued in state court, saying the decision was discriminatory. The association has now agreed to pay the Snyders' legal fees and costs of $42,548, plus $10,000 in compensatory damages that will be donated to the Children's Tumor Foundation. The Snyders can also put up the awning.
The state court case has not yet been settled.
FULL STORY at the Post Gazette
A chance to right an old wrong
(BALTIMORE, Md., Jan. 17, 2012)
-- President Barack Obama's recess appointment to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Richard Cordray, wasted no time in announcing the watchdog agency's "nonbank supervision program." Bringing nonbank mortgage lenders more fully and formally under federal supervision could represent a historic moment for fair housing enforcement more than four decades after the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act.
But only if congressional Republicans get out of the way and let Mr. Cordray do his job.
Primarily targeting discrimination by real estate brokers, the 1968 law made it illegal to refuse to rent or sell real estate on the basis of race, religion, or national origin — all common practices prior to its passage. The act also prohibited discriminatory lending, but it failed to spell out a clear enforcement mechanism for the provision. As a result, over its 44 years, the Fair Housing Act's effectiveness in curbing unfair lending has depended on the willingness and ability of federal regulators to monitor lenders, often with disappointing results.
The CFPB's nonbank supervision initiative promises to give fair housing enforcement maximum coverage over the nation's mortgage lenders. But this historic advance could be turned back if Republicans continue to obstruct the new consumer protection agency.
FULL STORY at the Baltimore Sun
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