A small town in Connecticut is buried in controversy after a lawsuit was filed claiming the housing authority discriminated against black residents.
The Winchester Housing Authority is being accused of discrimination because of their policy which only hands out Section 8 vouchers to people living in the 17 towns that comprise their district since most of areas are over 90 percent white. The suit alleges the town wants to keep its minority population at statistically zero percent.
The suit was filed by Crystal Carter and the Connecticut Fair Housing Center. Carter was denied an application because she didn’t live in the district and was forced to live in a shelter while she tried to secure housing for herself and her six children. Carter was also a victim of domestic violence. “Although WHA’s waiting list was open to applicants, WHA refused even to send Ms. Carter an application, telling her that she was ineligible because she did not live within the Rental Assistance Alliance,” said the lawsuit. “WHA also told Carter that Winchester was not on a ‘bus line,’ there were no real jobs there, and it was in the ‘woods.’ WHA recommended that Ms. Carter apply to the housing programs in Bridgeport, New Haven, or Torrington, all communities with considerably larger African-American and Hispanic populations than the towns in the Rental Assistance Alliance.”
The lawsuit has caused WHA to examine their policies and they were working to change them according to News One.
