Supreme Court ruling casts a shadow on NYC's affordable-housing effort

Crain's New York reports:

The city's longstanding practice of building new affordable-housing projects in low-income and minority neighborhoods could be vulnerable to a legal challenge following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

On June 25, the court issued an opinion that changed the interpretation of the Fair Housing Act—a federal law born out of the civil-rights movement that prevents discriminating against people of a particular race, gender or national origin who are looking to rent or buy a home.

Under the decision, anyone looking to challenge an affordable-housing policy, for example, on the basis it violates the Fair Housing Act must prove only that the policy itself is discriminatory, rather than prove it intentionally violated the rights of the people covered under the act.

That could prove problematic for Mayor Bill de Blasio's initiative to build 80,000 new units of affordable housing over a decade as part of his broader housing plan, according to a number of legal and housing experts. On Monday, the mayor heralded that plan by announcing that the city created or preserved a near-record number of affordable units.

"The [de Blasio] administration is definitely going to have to think through the implications of all its housing policies," said Kenneth Fisher, a former city councilman and land-use attorney at Cozen O'Connor. "They will need to be able to explain to the Department of Justice and [the Department of Housing and Urban Development] why their policies are furthering integration—and not segregation."

New York City has long focused housing subsides—such as capital dollars or tax credits—on financing the construction of 100% affordable apartment buildings in lower-income neighborhoods in the Bronx or eastern Brooklyn, for example, which are also home to large minority populations. Land costs in those areas compared with Manhattan or more affluent places in Brooklyn are a fraction of the cost, which allows more money to be used to build a greater number of apartments.

No more construction via Uncle Sugar in poor areas???