You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Court dismisses discrimination claim against Jewish housing association
The High Court has dismissed a discrimination claim against a north London housing association set up to house Orthodox Jews.
Two non-Jewish families brought a judicial review case against Agudas Israel Housing Association (AIHA) in May last year, claiming its policy to only allocate homes to Orthodox Jews was discriminatory.
They brought the case against Hackney Council, arguing it should not have a nominations agreement with AIHA because of this.
Although two families originally brought the case, one dropped out before the judgement, which dismissed the claim because of the Equality Act.
READ MORE
Ita Symons, chief executive of AIHA, told Inside Housing: “We have been given the green light to continue the work I set out to do almost 40 years ago.
“That was in jeopardy when a claimant challenged our right to do so. Naturally, we feel vindicated and relieved that we can continue to do the work for which we have been established.”
The remaining claimant, according to the court documents published this week, is a single mother from Stamford Hill with four children, two of whom have been diagnosed with autism. The family was moved out of a Hackney property in September 2017 after it was found to be unsafe.
The mother has the highest possible priority rating for rehousing but the council has not been able to find a home for her. According to the documents, six homes in AIHA’s new development would fit her criteria.
According to the Equality Act, service providers may take action against disadvantages experienced by people who share a protected characteristic, such as race or religion.
The claimant’s lawyer, Ian Wise, argued that Orthodox Jews in Hackney did not suffer any disadvantage that was not shared by other applicants for social housing in the borough and that AIHA was allowing them to “jump the queue”.
The judges, however, Lord Justice Lindblom and Sir Kenneth Parker, ruled that the disadvantages faced by Orthodox Jews are “real and substantial”.
These, they said, included “very high levels of poverty and deprivation” and “widespread and increasing overt anti-Semitism”.
In particular, the judges noted evidence from Ms Symons, who told the court she had heard “countless accounts from housing applicants whom AIHA has housed from the private sector about the prejudice they have faced in trying to rent in the private sector on account of their appearance, their language and their religion”.
