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Light Rain Fog/Mist Island Park announces settlement in HUD lawsuit
After 20 years, motion brings an end to the scandal
After 20 years of legal back-and-forth, the Board of Trustees of the Village of Island Park voted at its meeting on June 21 to settle the lawsuit brought against it by the United States for the HUD scandal of the early 1990s.
Village board members voted 4-0 (Trustee Irene Naudus was absent from the meeting) to accept as-yet undisclosed terms of the settlement agreement. Village officials declined to comment on the specifics of the agreement at the meeting. Instead, Island Park Mayor James Ruzicka said that the village would hold a special meeting, most likely sometime this summer, to discuss the particulars of the settlement with residents and what it means for the village.
No current members of the Board of Trustees were named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was originally filed in 1990. The charges were filed against former Mayors Michael Parente and Jacqueline Papatsos, former Trustees Charlotte Kikkert, Philip Taglianetti and James Fallon and some village residents.
In the 1970s, Section 235 of the National Housing Act established the Section 235 Program, which was designed to provide mortgage assistance to enable low-income families to purchase homes. The office of Housing and Urban Development made monthly payments to subsidize homeowners' mortgage payments.
The village was part of the Nassau County Consortium -- an organization formed by many Nassau communities to participate in HUD programs -- which applied for and received Community Development Block Grant funds for community-development programs. One of those was the Section 235 Program in Island Park. As part of the agreement it made when accepting the funds, the village said it would not discriminate in its use of them.
As part of its agreement with HUD, Nassau County filed an Affirmative Action Housing Market Plan to aggressively market Section 235 houses built in non-minority areas, such as Island Park, to minority groups. The homes were also supposed to be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
