Group files Huntington housing complaint

A housing advocacy group has filed a federal complaint against the Town of Huntington, claiming the town has not done enough to create affordable housing and eliminate racial segregation.

The Fair Housing in Huntington Committee filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Thursday, seeking to scuttle the town's application for $1 million in federal Community Development Block Grant money until the town comes up with a more intensive fair-housing plan.

The complaint argues that the town has a history of discrimination, including restrictive zoning, reaching back decades. It also claims the town has not met current HUD requirements to file a plan on how it will effectively end racial segregation and remove impediments to fair housing.

"Huntington has never met their responsibility to affirmatively further fair housing, and HUD should investigate and make that determination," said Joe Rich, director of the Fair Housing Project at the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, who is representing the committee.

Town spokesman A.J. Carter would not comment on the complaint, saying the town has not "had a chance to review the allegations."

The Fair Housing in Huntington Committee has taken aim at the town's housing practices in the past. In 2002, the group filed a federal lawsuit against the town over The Greens, a senior housing development that did not include any affordable units, and later amended the suit to include the same developer's proposal for one-bedroom affordable units on Ruland Road.

The group argued that by allowing Ruland Road to be only one-bedroom apartments, instead of units that could accommodate families, the town effectively discriminated against minorities and families.

A judge dismissed that case last year, but Rich said the group is considering refiling.