Lakewood, NJ - Realty Company Charged With Ethnic Bias
Lakewood, NJ - Federal housing officials have charged Triple H. Realty LLC of Lakewood, an embattled realty company here with discrimination, alleging a pattern of racial and religious preferences at Cottage Manor Apartments that benefited the Jewish families who lived there while neglecting minority tenants, they are accused of violating the Fair Housing Act by attempting to segregate non-Jewish black and Hispanic tenants at the 104-unit, six-building complex on Woehr Avenue, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Wednesday.
The charge is the first housing discrimination case filed in Lakewood's recent history, despite some residents' frequent accusations that the township's large Orthodox Jewish population receives preferential treatment.
HUD's investigation began after a complaint was filed by two residents in June 2004, according to case documents. Cottage Manor, formerly known as the Congress Apartments, has had problems in the past.
posted by VOS IZ NEIAS @ 7/06/2006 10:00:00 AM
12 Comments:
At 10:01 AM,
VOS IZ NEIAS said…
HUD's current allegations include:
Non-Jewish tenants were forced to transfer to buildings at the back of the property so that Jewish families could move to the better-maintained apartments at the complex's front end.
Non-Jewish tenants received little to no maintenance compared to the service provided to Jewish tenants. For example, Cottage Manor management refused to properly exterminate one non-Jewish family's apartment.
The building, home to many Jewish families, has a well-manicured lawn in the front courtyard enclosed by a white picket fence. The buildings with a majority of black and Hispanic tenants have little or no lawn. Their courtyards are not enclosed by a picket fence.
Non-Jewish tenants were told they could not leave toys or personal items on the lawns, but Jewish tenants were permitted to do so.
"Driving through the area you can see the physical disparities," said Wise, who handles housing complaints for the NAACP as a member of the group's executive board.
HUD's charge of discrimination was issued against the company, Ortiz and Kantor. No phone numbers could be found Wednesday night for Ortiz and Kantor. Shlomo Kanarek, listed on the property's 2003 mortgage filing as the managing member of Triple H. Realty, also could not be reached.
Discrimination charges can be heard before an administrative law judge or in a U.S. District Court. If the case is heard by a law judge, the first hearing is scheduled for Sept. 26.
The maximum civil penalty for a first offense charge of discrimination is $11,000, in addition to actual damages for each complaint.
"Providing unequal living facilities based on religion, race, color and/or national origin is simply inconceivable," said Kim Kendrick, HUD's assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity. "We are committed to ensuring these families have an equal opportunity for housing in their community."
At 10:10 AM,
Anonymous said…
If this is true it is a chillul Hashem. All tenants should be treated equally. I am assuming that maybe the other tenants were there before the Yidden , and they only made improvements on apartments after they were vacated and Yidden moved in , and they are hoping that the original tenenats will eventually move out, and then they will fix up the place.Maybe the rents are lower on the non improved apartments. In any case, the landlord should be required to maintain ALL the apartments in decent liveable conditions. There is no reason that all people should not be able to live peacefully together, if they respect one another and are treated equally. I grew up in NYC in a housing project with all types of people, different colors, religions etc. We mostly got along, never locked our doors etc. But, that was in a better era.
At 11:41 AM,
Anonymous said…
This has little to do with race, and everything to do with the quality of those living there. The fact remains that the minority tenants care less about the property they live in, and don't treat their own homes with respect.
If I were to place a picket fence on a minority building, the fence would be destroyed in no time.
This is not anti-racial it is just based on the facts, and all those that own/manage properties know exactly what I am talking about.
Having a well manicured lawn in one building and not another is not descrimination by any stretch of the law. Not servicing an apt is not descrimination.
This is just a bunch of noise by the desparate NAACP. I am sure this wil l go away, but of course the media will not be there to report when the charges are dropped.
"Driving through the area you can see the physical disparities," said Wise sure when I drive through Harlem it does not look the same as Park Slope. How stupid!!
At 5:55 PM,
Anonymous said…
there is only one grassy area in front of any building and it has a fence the rest of the bldngs or theyre really garden aptmnts open to vblacktop and it was this way prior to jews living there 3 of 16 apartments
At 9:38 PM,
Anonymous said…
You guys must be kidding.There is discrimination in just about every building which houses Yiddin in lakewood.
To prove this . Take a look at some of the new rental complexes/ develpments that just went up in the past few monthes/years?
Find me one single NON hemishe or Goy living in them?
Find me one goy living in west gate, just for example.
At 2:54 AM,
Anonymous said…
Hey , the goyim living in Cottage Manure are the dredges of Lakewood, worse than MLK. I put half of them in jail. They dont have a lawn probably because the go, urinate on it, sell drugs on it and couldn't care less. Terrible, they didn't want to "properly" exterminate. The way these people live, you could be in there every day exterminating and not get rid of their problems. I've seen the roaches covering the wall in that place and the people could care less. Some in there don't even use garbage bags in their trash bins and all they do is scream " The Jew, the Jew , the Jew!" The only chilil Hash-m here is that Kanarek put Jews into that development to begin with.
At 9:04 AM,
Anonymous said…
Jose and Florentina Resto describe themselves as devout Christians. They have lived in a three-bedroom apartment in Building No. 115 at Cottage Manor since 1998.
Around April 2004, the on-site property supervisor, Vincent Ortiz, told Resto he and his family had to move to another building in the complex so their apartment could be rented to a Jewish family. The Restos are described by HUD as black and Hispanic.
The Restos refused and were told their lease would not be renewed when it expired that July. On June 10, 2004, the Restos telephoned HUD - and Resto told management about the call. Management then signed the lease. Harry Kantor, the managing property agent, denied he ever told anyone not to sign the Restos' lease.
At 9:05 AM,
Anonymous said…
Esteban and Gloria Castro, described as Hispanic Protestants, lived in Building No. 115.
In 2004, Ortiz told Castro he and his family had to move to Building No. 113 because management wanted No. 115 to be filled with Jewish families. The couple complied.
Cottage Manor sued the Castros for back rent after their public-housing voucher was canceled. HUD says the suit was unrelated to the building move, although Gloria Castro contends Ortiz told her that if the Castros agreed to move, they could pay back their rent in monthly installments.
The Castros now live in Dover Township.
At 9:06 AM,
Anonymous said…
Denise Young was asked in the summer of 2003 to move from Building No. 113 to a building in the rear of the complex.
Young said "no," and three months later, she noticed she had no gas for hot water and cooking. She called the gas company, which told her someone had tampered with her meter. A maintenance worker then told her that Ortiz told him to shut off her gas supply so Cottage Manor could do extermination work.
Management had never turned off her gas to do extermination work in the past.
At 9:07 AM,
Anonymous said…
Daimian and Cristina Edwards had rodents and roaches in their Building No. 123 apartment for four years.
And the minority couple — he's black, she's Puerto Rican — said Cottage Manor wouldn't send an exterminator over after 4 p.m. during the work week or on weekends. The couple wouldn't leave a key with management because, they said, of a prior bad experience when a maintenance worker used their telephone to make long-distance calls.
The Edwardses paid for their own pesticides to clean their apartment and had to buy new cooking utensils.
They allege management refused to properly exterminate their two-bedroom apartment. The pair — both describe themselves as Christians — also allege they received inadequate maintenance repairs in their bedroom and bathroom.
At 9:08 AM,
Anonymous said…
For one month in 2004, Olivia Wilson said, she saw rodents and roaches in her apartment every day.
At night, she could hear the rodents running.
Both Wilson and her mother asked Ortiz to fix the problem. Someone then sprayed outside her Building 123 apartment. No one sprayed inside her home.
Wilson, a Cuban immigrant who is Christian, bought over-the-counter pesticides to try to solve her problem. It didn't work.
She moved out in April 2004. Her current address is in Woodlake Manor in Lakewood.
At 9:09 AM,
Anonymous said…
Edilberto Romerro moved into his apartment before the kitchen was completed. A Mexican immigrant and a Christian, he lived with a broken closet door and a hole in the floor at the entrance to the apartment in Building 119.
His current address is Central Avenue, Lakewood.
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