Public housing residents fight back
Thursday, July 10th, 2008Two public housing residents filed a housing discrimination complaint yesterday with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development alleging that the Atlanta Housing Authority’s demolition plans for most of its remaining housing projects violates the federal Fair Housing Act.
Atlanta civil rights attorney Lindsay Jones is representing the two women, Shirley Hightower and Diane Wright, who filed the complaint on behalf of the 1,200 families who will soon be displaced from Hollywood Courts, Bankhead Courts, Herndon Homes and Thomasville Heights. Of course, not all of the residents oppose the demolition.
In a press release, Jones claimed, that the housing authority’s decision to give the displaced residents federal vouchers for reduced rent “will steer displaced residents into impoverished and racially segregated neighborhoods, if they will be able to find any housing at all.” That practice, Jones claims, contradicts the housing authority’s promise that “residents will be able to move to better neighborhoods with higher performing schools under the relocation plan.”
According to the complaint, which seeks a federal injunction against the demolitions:
The AHA’s proposed demolition application will displace low income African American households into a metro Atlanta housing market with a significant and growing deficit in fair share housing opportunities.
