Local media is reporting the city is suing a homeowner in the first test of the city’s fair housing ordinance. Here’s the Chron’s story:
The city of Houston on Tuesday filed its first criminal misdemeanor charge under a fair housing ordinance, a case against a millionaire for not selling his $8.2 million home in an affluent gated community to his neighbor.
Randy Zamora, chief prosecutor for the city, said Matthew Prucka, an engineer inventor, faces up to a $500 fine if found guilty of discriminating against the disabled in the December 2007 sale of his home.
“After looking at statements he made in a deposition, it seems pretty clear he just didn’t like the idea of ramps and widening halls and did not want his house to be used by his neighbor’s disabled daughter,” Zamora said.
Prucka’s attorney said the criminal charge is “absurd.” He said Prucka cared about preserving a historic home, and that the issue of his neighbor’s disabled daughter wasn’t raised until the neighbor became angry over not getting the house.
[snip]
“The idea is to make the point that this is against the law,” said Zamora, who said he didn’t contact Prucka or his attorney before filing the charge. “If these cases are brought to our attention, we will do something about it.”
KUHF-88.7’s story includes this from Mr. Prucka’s attorney:
Fogler says his client found someone who wanted to buy the house as is.
“The buyer loved the house the way it was and wanted to preserve it. And that meant something to Mr. Prucka and his wife, because they had spent so much time restoring the house to its original condition.”
Three years after the ordinance made it through Council, and the first test is over a historic, multi-million dollar home — which would seem to indicate there’s not a whole lot of housing discrimination going on in Houston. But hey, Gordon Quan got his feel-good ordinance, and that’s what counts:
Houston lawyer Gordon Quan helped push through the law when on the City Council and said he’s surprised the first case is about “wealthy people battling over a piece of property. It’s usually used for poor people.”
Not in Houston!
