Connecticut HFA Faces Suit To Restrict Placement of Projects In High-Poverty, Minority Areas

摘要

The Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) is facing a lawsuit to compel the adoption of qualified allocation plan (QAP) selection criteria that would restrict the placement of low-income housing tax credit projects in high poverty, predominantly minority areas. (Asylum Hill Problem Solving Revitalization Association v. King, CV-03-0821968S, Connecticut Superior Court, Judicial District of Hartford) The Connecticut Civil Liberties Union Foundation (CCLU) filed the suit on behalf of the Asylum Hill Problem Solving Revitalization Association (AHPSRA), a community-based organization in the Asylum Hill section of Hartford, and Adrienne Brown, an African-American resident, after CHFA failed to respond to an administrative complaint challenging the lack of civil rights guidelines in the QAP for selecting project sites. The plaintiffs are seeking a declaratory judgment that CHFA's rules and QAP violate federal and state requirements to take steps to further fair housing and to promote fair housing choice and racial and economic integration. Also, the lawsuit seeks an injunction barring CHFA from funding additional family rental units in areas with substantial minority populations or concentrations of poverty until the agency revises its procedures for reviewing tax credit applications to assess the segregative effect of allocations.