Attorney General James Takes Action To Fight Discrimination Against Jewish Community

AG James Intervenes in Lawsuit Over Anti-Semitic Housing
Practices Against the Jewish Community in Orange County

ORANGE COUNTY – Attorney General Letitia James today took action to fight discriminatory housing practices that the Town of Chester and Orange County have utilized to prevent members of the Jewish community from moving to Chester, New York. Attorney General James filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit against the Town of Chester and Orange County alleging that they have engaged in a concerted and systematic effort to prevent Hasidic Jewish families from moving to Chester by blocking the construction of a housing development. The original lawsuit, filed in July 2019 by the developers of the “The Greens at Chester,” outlined countless discriminatory and unnecessary actions that Chester and Orange County have taken to stop the homes from being built in order to prevent Jewish families from purchasing and occupying them, gross violations of the Fair Housing Act.   

“Blocking the construction of homes to prevent a religious group from living in a community is flat out discriminatory,” said Attorney General Letitia James. “This campaign to deny housing to members of the Jewish community is not only a clear violation of our laws, but is antithetical to our basic values and blatantly anti-Semitic. New York has a longstanding commitment to ensure equal housing opportunities for all residents – regardless of race, gender, or religious identity – and we will ensure this commitment is upheld.”

The Fair Housing Act dictates that it is unlawful for anyone to refuse to sell or rent a dwelling based on an individuals’ religion, race, sex, national origin, or familial status, among other protected classes. This lawsuit outlines the Town and County’s anti-Semitic campaign to specifically target and prevent Hasidic Jewish developers from operating in the Town and Hasidic Jewish families from residing in the Town.  

In October 2017, The Greens purchased a 117-acre property in the Town of Chester in Orange County, New York, which had been fully approved for residential development under the ownership of the previous developer. Since The Greens’ purchase in 2017, officials from both the County and the Town have repeatedly sought to block development of the site and have openly expressed discriminatory intent to block the development at public town meetings, explicitly referencing their desire to keep Hasidic families out of their community. 

Additionally, the Town and County placed multiple obstacles in the way of the developers in an attempt to thwart construction, all in violation of a settlement agreement reached in 2010 regarding the zoning and construction of the land. They passed a law to restrict the size of the houses that could be built in an attempt to make them uninhabitable for families. The Town and County also advanced proposals to levy extra taxes on the development; to limit the hours that construction could occur on the site; and to require the developer to provide the personal information of its managing partners to local officials. 

They also imposed costly and unnecessary requirements that the developer had to comply with before construction, including mandating that a new sewer waste line be rerouted, requesting the main road be moved by 10 feet, and even requesting that the Department of Health reconsider an approval for a water supply permit, which the County had previously granted. After the developer complied with each of these unnecessary requests, the Town and County denied all building permit applications, even though the developer clearly satisfied the requirements necessary to be granted the permits. 

Attorney General James continued, “As we have seen an alarming rise in the rates of anti-Semitic incidents in New York and across the country, this type of intolerance and discriminatory behavior, especially at the hands of local government, is truly despicable. Intolerance towards others only fosters hate and makes our communities weaker."

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the number of anti-Semitic incidents recorded in New York State increased by about 90 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year and in New York City, the NYPD has reported that anti-Semitic incidents are up 60 percent compared to this time last year.

This case is led by Jessica Clarke, Bureau Chief of the Civil Rights Bureau, Sania W. Khan, Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Bureau, Vinita Kamath, Assistant Attorney General in Charge of the Poughkeepsie Regional Office, and Clarence Okoh, an intern at the Civil Rights Bureau. The Regional Offices are led by the Director of Regional Offices Jill Faber and the Civil Rights Bureau is led by Chief Deputy Attorney General for Social Justice Meghan Faux; both are overseen by First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy.