On September 4, 2010 the New York Civil Liberties Union and the law firm of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady joined Brooklyn Legal Services as co-counsel in a housing discrimination lawsuit arising from plans to build a substantial amount of new low-income housing at a 31-acre site known as the Broadway Triangle, located in South Williamsburg in Brooklyn.
The lawsuit alleges that the City and its housing authority have discriminated on the basis of race and religion in funding and planning for the proposed low-income housing. Plaintiffs allege that, despite the overwhelming need by people of color for affordable housing in the Bedford-Stuyvesant and Williamsburg areas of Brooklyn, under current plans a dispropportionate majority of the housing units would be allotted to white, Hasidic families.
The plaintiffs are community organizations and individuals, including a Hasidic organization, who seek declaratory and injunctive relief requiring more diverse and inclusionary low-income housing to be constructed on the site.
Prior to the NYCLU entering the case, the court issued a temporary restraining order halting any actual construction from processing. The case has now been referred by the trial court to a referee, who will make findings of fact and a recommendation to the trial judge regarding the plaintiff's request for a preliminary injuction.
On December 4, 2017, the Broadway Triangle Community Coalition, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Brooklyn Legal Services and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP announced a settlement with New York City that will expand affordable housing in Brooklyn’s Broadway Triangle Urban Renewal in ways that promote racial integration and equal housing opportunity.
