NAACP Makes a Housing Point

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund won a big one last week. Lawyers negotiated a $450,000 settlement, the largest ever in an individual housing discrimination suit. The case stemmed from a complaint at an apartment complex in Westchester. One hopes the steep penalty will serve as a warning of just how harsh the consequences of unfair discrimination can be.

In the past, landlords and apartment managers could routinely ignore fair housing laws. If caught, they might pay a nuisance fee--only up to $1,000--as the price of doing business in an unfairly discriminatory manner. But the climate is changing.

The Westchester settlement stemmed from a complaint against the owners and managers of the Belford Park Apartments complex. The case involved a black airline employee, Allan Lopez, who was rejected as a tenant when he tried to move in with a white resident of the complex.Both men complained to the Westside Fair Housing Council, which tested the allegations by sending other would-be tenants, both black and white, to the complex. The results of that test prompted the council to refer the case to NAACP lawyers.

There was no admission of discrimination by lawyers representing the owners, Westchester Investment Co., or the former managers, Gutweiler-Woolley Properties Inc. But they did agree to the costly settlement and to other remedies such as training employees in fair-housing practices. The NAACP’s legal defense fund lawyers were hoping for a large settlement in the case that would send a message to landlords thinking that housing discrimination was easy to get away with. Unlike individual practitioners, the civil-rights lawyers had the resources and the expertise to stay with the battle.

They did. And they won.