Opinion ID: 500653
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: housing remedies

Text: 313 Insofar as the court ordered the City to construct 200 units of family housing outside of Southwest Yonkers on sites selected by the City or, in default of an actual selection, on sites designated by the court, the City argues that the court abused its discretion in ordering any construction, in requiring that the housing be for low-income families, and in controlling the sites for construction. The City also challenges the order that it develop a plan to create additional subsidized and private low-income housing and that it allocate 25% of its Development Grant funds for subsidized housing. In addition, the Board challenges one aspect of the housing order. One of the sites the court has deemed the City to have selected is the closed Walt Whitman School, and the Board contends that it should not be required to yield this property since it has not been found liable for segregation in housing. In light of the substantial latitude given a district court to fashion remedies for constitutional violations, we reject each of the parties' challenges. 314 As discussed in Part B.II.A. above, once a municipality has undertaken to construct low-income housing, it may not, consistent with the Equal Protection Clause, deliberately and with segregative intent concentrate that housing in predominantly minority neighborhoods. The remedy fashioned by the district court is closely tailored to the City's constitutional violations and intrudes no more than necessary on the City's prerogatives, consistent with ensuring that some remedial action will in fact occur. Thus, the court built upon a consent decree, already agreed to by the City with HUD, for the construction of 200 units of family housing using federal funds; it was plainly reasonable for the district court to believe that the order requiring the City to comply with this undertaking was necessary in light of the City's prior disregard of governmental urging that it select housing sites outside of Southwest and its historical willingness to forgo federal funding in order to preserve segregated housing patterns. The number of units, 200, was hardly excessive in light of the City's agreement with HUD and the existing concentration of 6,566 units of housing, or 96.6% of all of its subsidized housing, in Southwest. The requirement that the housing be built outside of Southwest Yonkers obviously was necessary in order to achieve some degree of correction of the imbalance caused by the City's unlawful concentration of all prior low-income family housing inside Southwest Yonkers. In addition, it was appropriate and prudent for the court to give the City a deadline for designating the construction sites outside of Southwest and to deem the City to have chosen sites selected by the court if the City failed to meet that deadline. The City's past history of foot-dragging (e.g., nine years taken to approve sites for 750 units) and its refusals to approve any site for low-income housing outside of Southwest or Runyon Heights plainly warranted the imposition of a deadline and the inclusion of default provisions. 315 We are also unpersuaded that the court abused its discretion in ordering the Board to return to the City the site of the closed Walt Whitman School. The Board made no showing that it had any plans to reopen Whitman, and after the site was identified as one that could be used for low-income housing, took the position that it might use that building to train teachers or store books. The court order provided that, in turning over the Whitman site to the City, the Board was entitled to reserve space for these training and storage purposes. The Board has made no other objections that we find persuasive. The circumstances of this suit made it appropriate for the court to look to closed school properties as possible housing sites, for while the Board was not held liable for housing segregation, the court found that there was an interrelated governmental effort by the City and the Board to preserve segregated neighborhood schools and that the City advocated such schools partly in order to maintain segregated neighborhoods; the City's housing segregation was thus exacerbated by the Board's knowing adherence to a neighborhood-school policy. Since the Board's actions helped to enhance the segregated housing patterns, and since all of the pertinent persons are parties to the present suit, it was permissible for the court to order the Board to return the closed school to the City. 316 We have considered all of the defendants' other arguments against the district court's housing order and have found them to be without merit.