Otero v. New York City Housing Authority combines two complex issues in a novel context. The first, an increasing problem for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is the extent to which federal funds will be used to finance low-income public housing when the effect of the tenant assignment and site selection procedures is to perpetuate or to increase existing patterns of racial concentration. The second is the extent to which courts will give legal recognition to the tipping phenomenon in determining the effect of tenant assignment and site selection procedures on racial concentration.

Sociologists use the term “tipping phenomenon” to describe the process ofwhites’ leaving a neighborhood once black residents entering the neighborhood readi a certain percentage point. That point is called the tipping point. if the tipping point is predictable, the tipping phenomenon is a relevant factor to be considered in assessing the effect of a federally funded project on existing patterns of racial concentration.

This Note is devoted to an analysis of the tipping phenomenon in the context of Otero.