Lev Dassin, the
acting United States attorney for the southern district of New York, and Tony West, the assistant attorney general for the civil division of the Department of Justice, announced today that Westchester County has agreed to fund the building of 750 units of affordable housing in areas with low racial and
ethnic diversity in order to settle a lawsuit brought against it by the United States under the False Claims
Act as well as the Housing and Community Development
Act.
Indeed, the court found that a real estate licensee could be liable for unlawful racial steering in violation of the federal Fair Housing
Act if the licensee provided such information, since this type of information required a subjective decision by the licensee about what constituted racial or
ethnic diversity.