It’s not surprising to me that with so little affordable housing units, that there is much fierce competition to acquire them. With the poverty rate increasing by a whole 1% from 2011 to 2012, there are a whole 1.7 million New Yorkers struggling to make ends meet and survive on what little they have. The affordable housing units that are distributed through Mayor de Blasio’s 10-year affordable housing plan could make a world of difference for most of these impoverished people. The problem with the plan is that it only offers up a total of 97 apartments that are distributed through a lottery, half of which are pre-designated for either the disabled or to the people from the local community. These reservations make sense and were founded on sound principles. In no way were these policies meant to discriminate against anyone, as the three african american New Yorkers wanted people to believed. Claiming that the so called “outsider restriction policy” promotes segregation and constitutes illegal housing discrimination in the Jarrett Murphy article.

These three men were simply frustrated that they didn’t get a spot in the housing units and wanted to blame the system for something that they aren’t even entitled to. This program should be considered a gift from the government to help people in need and not a privilege. Even a simple background check on the Attorney representing these folk gives us a little insight on  the situation. Craig Gurian is the mastermind behind this lawsuit and the founder of the “non- profit” Anti-Discrimination Center. Looking at some of his previous cases, such as the one where he “pocketed $10 million in a civil-rights lawsuit against a wealthy New York county five years ago and hasn’t spent any of it to help downtrodden communities it claims to represent, according to government filings” (Richards, 2015). In addition, of the other millions of dollars awarded to the Anti-Discrimination center since its creation in 2003, “federal non-profit tax returns do not show that the organization distributed any of the proceeds to develop affordable housing in the past five years” (Richards, 2015) For a non-profit organization that supposedly fights against discrimination and for affordable housing, it has done nothing for either cause besides building its networth from $30,000 in 2003 to a baffling $9,000,000 today. Without a doubt in my mind, Gurian is a rapacious lawyer that couldn’t care less about the problems with the system beyond his paycheck at the end of the lawsuit.

Of course, a shady organization doesn’t excuse the fact that it probably is slightly more difficult for African-Americans to get a spot in the affordable housing units. As seen with the New York Times article this has devastating long term effects on low income families as geography potentially could significantly reduce a youths chance of achieving success. But suing the City for money over a unsubstantiated claim helps no one besides these three plaintiffs and their voracious attorney. We should be looking for long term housing solutions for these poverty-stricken  New Yorkers that will actually help them in the long run.

Richard Tori, 2015.     http://watchdog.org/199374/non-profit-hoards-millions/