A real world example of developing a community without knowledge of or procedures to comply with the Fair Housing Act (FHA) is on display in Maryland right now. A developer started work on a community (with just under 60 homes) overlooking a river north of Baltimore. A number of homes were built and some people bought the first group of houses. All good, right? Not so fast.

When the developer ran into financial troubles, he stopped working on the partially completed project. Last year, an immigrant from Pakistan joined forces with another developer to restart the project. Their goal was to build a retirement community for a certain Muslim sect. The stated plan was to build a “peace village” for Muslims age 55 and over with a mosque. 22 of the homes were sold. Construction was restarted.

At that point, various officials and other residents complained, asserting that the developer was violating the fair housing laws because the homes were now being marketed toward only Muslims. Indeed, one local real estate agent filed an administrative complaint with HUD asserting she could not get information about the community to market to her non-Muslim clients. Certain language on a website was deleted. Complicating matters further is another lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, claiming that the county  stopped issuing the necessary building permits because it was “motivated by racial and religious animus to keep members of the Islamic faith from purchasing lots and exercising their religious freedoms.”

So, is this religious intolerance? Is it steering (directing certain people to certain homes)? Would anyone have cared if the developer was catering to a different religion? But doesn’t fair housing mean that people of any faith (or no faith) should be able to buy available homes? On the one hand, religion is a protected class. On the other hand, isn’t it wrong to limit buyers to those of a specific faith? Is the county slowing down permits because of the specific religion involved? What about the daughter of one of the original buyers (who has since passed away) and now wants to sell. Is she limited to only being able to sell to Muslims?  Should “equal housing opportunity” support such a result?  Will prices be artificially depressed if it is perceived the community is segregated?

HUD and the courts will have to sort this all out. In the interim, I suspect there will be more meetings with the county, the developer, and the residents in an effort to find a solution.

Just A Thought.

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