Lyman Terrace has 400 tenants in 167 units in a complex built in the 1930's.
Part of the Lyman Terrace housing complex in Holyoke.HOLYOKE — Six Lyman Terrace tenants have filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination to block plans to demolish the complex.
The complaint was filed because demolition would equal discrimination because most Lyman Terrace residents are Hispanic, according to the complaint, filed Wednesday.
The complaint was filed against the city, which owns Lyman Terrace, and the Holyoke Housing Authortity, which manages the 167-unit complex, the complaint said.
“We are saying that demolishing Lyman Terrace would be unlawful because it would have a disparate impact on Hispanic people. We are absolutely not accusing the mayor or anyone in city government of racism or bigotry,” lawyer Peter Vickery, of Amherst, representing the complainants, said in a press release.
Rosalie M. Deane, Housing Authority executive director, said Thursday that an application for a permit to demolish Lyman Terrace was filed in May with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The federal agency will do a rigorous review of the application in terms of meeting fair housing standards, she said.
She declined to comment on the complaint’s assertion that demolition would be discrimination because of its disparate effect on Hispanics.
“They have the right to do what they want to do and we’ll just work with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and move forward,” Deane said.
Mayor Alex B. Morse said he was reviewing the complaint with the city solicitor and declined to comment.
The Lyman Terrace tenants listed as complainants are Edda Amaro, 54 West Court, Sonia Gonzalez, 55 East Court, Jacqueline Hernandez, 37 West Court, Edwin Mendoza, 6 Oliver St., Jennette Rodriguez, 56 West Court, and Lugui Sanchez, 48 West Court.
Vickery said later in an email complainants are asking the commission to ask a Hampden Superior Court judge to issue an injunction to stop the demolition.
“If our arguments succeed and the commission does seek the injunction, I think it would happen in September/October,” Vickery wrote in the email.
Besides blocking the demolition, the complaint seeks awarding of damages and attorney’s fees.
Housing Authority officials have cited code and cost issues in seeking to raze Lyman Terrace. It was built to 1930s specifications, leaving many of the units too small by today’s building codes, and engineers have said that converting the housing to today’s standards would cost $24 million, which is prohibitive, officials have said.
Critics have said that the complex was worth preserving and that taking it down was an excuse to displace a mostly Hispanic population in the city’s urban center.
Critics also have said they doubt the authority’s ability to relocate tenants. The complaint said the city lacks sufficient affordable housing, meaning demolition would force tenants to leave Holyoke.
About 400 people live in the 18 red brick buildings bordered by Lyman, Front and John streets in the Downtown Neighborhood.