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Jewish housing association beats discrimination challenge at appeal
A housing association set up to house Orthodox Jews has again seen a discrimination claim against it dismissed in court.
The legal battle between north London-based Agudas Israel Housing Association (AIHA) and two non-Jewish families has been going on for almost a year.
The families, one of which dropped out of the case months ago, argue that Hackney Council should not have a nominations agreement with AIHA because its policy only to house Orthodox Jews is “discriminatory”.
The remaining claimant, according to documents lodged with the court, is a single mother from Stamford Hill with four children, one of whom has been diagnosed with autism. Hackney Council has been unable to find her a suitable property for her family.
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Her representative argued in the High Court that Orthodox Jews do not face any disadvantages that are not faced by other applicants for social housing in the borough but were being allowed to “jump the queue”.
This claim, however, was dismissed by the High Court in February, and the judges ruled that the disadvantages faced by Orthodox Jews are “real and substantial” and so the need for AIHA is real.
The Court of Appeal has now again dismissed the claim, and Lord Justice Lewison has agreed with the High Court’s judgement.
The judge added that it was “obvious why discrimination against the Orthodox Jewish community in accessing private sector housing is ameliorated by a housing association that gives members of that community preference”.
Ita Cymerman-Symons, chief executive of AIHA, said: “This seal of approval will allow AIHA’s ongoing and increasingly critical work to continue – both in addressing discrimination against Orthodox Jews and wider anti-Semitism, and in our continuing contribution to the members of the Orthodox Jewish community and to the development and strengthening of that community.”
Elliot Lister, partner at law firm Asserson, representing AIHA, added: “The Orthodox Jewish community members’ way of life requires them to live close by each other as a community, to the extent that many prefer to stay in unsuitable properties than to move away from their community.
“I am grateful that yet another of the highest courts in the land has recognised the features of the Orthodox Jewish way of life and the disadvantages that are engendered by that way of life.”
