Representing Advocacy Groups in Pursuit of Fair Housing and Neighborhood Equality

“. . . development of poverty law strategies and techniques is an attempt to offset the use of similar strategies and techniques by members of the bar who represent powerful, organizational clients.”  Lawrence E. Rothstein, The Myth of Sisyphus: Legal Services Efforts on Behalf of the Poor, 7 U. Mich. J. L. Reform 493 (1974).

Daniel & Beshara work with advocacy groups, legal aid organizations, neighborhood groups and community organizers.

 Advocacy organizations can present a strong counter to the interest group advocacy by the public and private institutions engaging in racial discrimination. Business and conservative interest groups long ago learned how to use litigation as one means of protecting their organizational interests. Rothstein, L, The Myth of Sisyphus, Legal Services Efforts on Behalf of the Poor, 7 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 493, 1973-1974. Few of the defendants responsible for perpetuating racial segregation are sole individuals acting on their own. The perpetuation and maintenance of racial segregation requires public and private groups action and support. Hills v. Gautreaux, 425 U.S. 284, 297 (1976) (funding for public housing segregation provided by HUD); Walker v. City of Mesquite, 169 F.3d 973, 975 (5th Cir. 1999), cert. denied, 528 U.S.1131 (2000). (Housing Authority, City of Dallas, HUD, and homeowners’ associations perpetuating racial segregation in public housing).

 Daniel & Beshara, P.C. represented ICP in advocacy to address the barriers of segregation that harmed ICP’s efforts to help their low-income housing clients access desegregated housing.  In addition to the challenge to racial segregation in the state LIHTC program that resulted in the TDHCA v. ICP U.S. Supreme Court disparate impact decision, Daniel & Beshara, P.C. represented ICP in a variety of other advocacy efforts. ICP, under its original name the Walker Project, Inc, successfully challenged the long-standing exclusionary zoning practices of the Town of Sunnyvale, Texas. Dews v. Town of Sunnyvale, Tex., 109 F. Supp. 2d 526, 530 (N.D. Tex. 2000).

 Daniel & Beshara, P.C. represented ICP in its litigation and administrative advocacy effort to reform HUD’s perpetuation of racial segregation in setting the maximum subsidy for voucher rents. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. v. U.S. Dept. of Hous. and Urb. Dev., 2009 WL 3122610, at *4 (N.D. Tex. 2009); 81 FR 80567.

 Daniel & Beshara represented ICP in its litigation challenging suburban racial segregation steering Low Income Housing Tax Credit projects away from White non-Hispanic neighborhoods and into predominantly Black neighborhoods Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. v. City of McKinney, Tex., 2009 WL 2590121, at *2 (E.D. Tex. 2009), as amended (Aug. 20, 2009).

The efforts are not always successful. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. v. Lincoln Prop. Co., 920 F.3d 890, 912–13 (5th Cir. 2019), (dissent); Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. v. Lincoln Prop. Co., 930 F.3d 660, 661 (5th Cir. 2019) denial of petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc, (dissent); cert. denied, 140 S. Ct. 2506 (2020). The complaint challenging the landlords’ policy to not accept vouchers was dismissed.

 Some group advocacy efforts have mixed results. The Tenth Street Residents Association in Dallas were able to obtain an end to City funding for demolition of historic structures even though the lawsuit was dismissed for lack of standing. This case was done in a joint effort with Legal Aid of Northwest Texas. Tenth Street Historic District is one of a few remaining Freedmen's Towns in the nation and the only remaining one in Dallas. Tenth St. Residential Assn. v. City of Dallas, Texas, 968 F.3d 492, 495–96, 498 n.3 (5th Cir. 2020).

 More informal groups may also benefit from legal representation. This may be a group of homeowners banding together to be plaintiffs in the same lawsuit. Daniel & Beshara represented such a group in the successful challenge to the City of Dallas’ and other parties’ operation of the largest illegal landfill in Texas. Cox v. City of Dallas, 256 F.3d 281 (5th Cir. 2001).

 Neighborhood groups challenging the City of Dallas’s racial discrimination in connection with flood protection, environmental protection, zoning and other City services provided to the Cadillac Heights neighborhood were represented by Daniel & Beshara. Miller v. City of Dallas, 2002 WL 230834 (N.D. Tex. 2002), Lopez v. City of Dallas, Tex. 2004 WL 2026804, *1 (N.D. Tex. 2004).

 Of course, class actions are acknowledged to have the potential to capture some of the litigation advantages that generally accrue only to governments and other institutional parties. See the class action claim in which Daniel & Beshara, P.C. represented a class of Black property owners whose homes were demolished by the City of Dallas in violation of due process. James v. City of Dallas, Tex., 254 F.3d 551, 565, 573 (5th Cir. 2001). [link to the municipal services discrimination page]