Huntington Branch, NAACP v. Town of Huntington
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
844 F.2d 926 (2d Cir.), review declined in part and judgment aff’d sub nom. Town of Huntington v. Huntington Branch, NAACP, 488 U.S. 15 (1988)
The Town of Huntington's (defendant) zoning ordinance restricted multi-family housing to an urban renewal area that was predominantly minority, while the town itself was 98% white; the NAACP and Housing Help (plaintiffs) sought to build an integrated, subsidized apartment complex with a 25% minority-occupancy goal outside that area, in a nearly all-white neighborhood, but the town refused to rezone. The NAACP sued under the Fair Housing Act; the district court found for the town, and the NAACP appealed.
Whether a facially neutral zoning ordinance confining multi-family housing to a predominantly minority urban renewal area violates the Fair Housing Act by having a disparate impact, when the town's justification for the restriction could arguably be achieved through less restrictive means.