HUD Settles Tennessee Apartment Violations of Americans with Disabilities Act and the Violence Against Women Act

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has entered into a Voluntary Compliance Agreement with HUD-funded Tennessee housing providers Alco Greenbriar Partners LP, Alco Properties, Inc., and Alco Management, Inc., requiring the respondents to pay $50,000 in compensation to the aggrieved parties. The VCA resolves findings of noncompliance related to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as findings of noncompliance related to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Read the Agreement, Letter of Findings and the VAWA Memo.

The case began with a limited compliance review initiated by HUD in 2022 regarding Greenbriar Apartments, a 208-unit development in Tennessee. HUD found that the respondents effectively denied multiple reasonable accommodation/modification requests, as well as instances of VAWA noncompliance regarding two households that experienced incidents of sexual assault and/or domestic violence and were not provided the requested VAWA transfers or take any additional action to process the requests.

HUD also found that the respondents were unwilling to transfer residents from one Alco property to another when a vacancy that met the need of the requesting tenant was unavailable at Greenbriar, that 5% of the units were not accessible to individuals with mobility impairments, and 2% more of the units were not accessible to individuals with hearing or vision impairments.

Under the 2023 Agreement resolving the Section 504 findings and VAWA issues, the respondents agreed to: pay $50,000 in monetary compensation for the five aggrieved parties; amend its reasonable accommodation transfer log; revise the transfer policy; revise its VAWA policies; construct or convert 10 UFAS-accessible units, with an additional 4 units for the hearing and visually impaired and accessible common areas; designate a VAWA Coordinator; respond to VAWA-related grievances and transfer requests within 10 days; and attend VAWA training.

Anyone who feels they have experienced discrimination in housing may file a complaint by contacting HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at (800) 669-9777 (voice) or (800) 877-8339 (Federal Relay Service). Housing providers' responsibilities to provide reasonable accommodations and reasonable modifications to individuals with disabilities are available here.

Read the January 25, 2023 HUD release.

US District Court Judges are Mostly White

25 of the 94 Federal District Courts have Never Had a Non-White Judge - Including Pennsylvania Middle and All New England States

According to a recent Bloomberg Law analysis of federal court records, 8 states in the South and 15 from the Northeast to the upper Great Plains have courts that never have had a non-White judge. While there are not any formal requirements to be considered for a federal judgeship, many trial court judges come from major law firms, US attorney’s offices, or were already judges in other courts. Black Americans have historically been underrepresented in those jobs in many states. 

President Barack Obama significantly diversified the federal courts: about one-fifth of his judicial appointees were Black, and President Joe Biden already has done more. He has gotten confirmed a far higher percentage of women (67.1%) than President Donald Trump (23.9%) or President Barack Obama (41.9%). Overall, 66% of Biden’s nominees have been people of color, according to the White House. Some 30% of Biden’s confirmed judges have been African American, compared to 3.9% under Trump and 17.9% under Obama. 

Many Black lawyers have not had the elite professional experiences and political connections that help elevate White lawyers to the US bench, according to local Black lawyers. The result is a major deficit in the administration of justice on the court when ever-deepening political polarization has increased the power of a single district judge. Their rulings at the trial district court level frequently start high-profile battles over immigration, public health, criminal justice, and other contentious social issues.

One example of the impact of the proportionate deficit of black judges is the Southern District of Georgia - the cities of Savannah and Augusta and 43 counties on the coast and in state’s southeastern corner. Nearly one-third of the district’s residents are Black, making it the most diverse of any judicial district that has only ever had White judges. There is a disproportionate number of Black criminal defendants, at times 70% to 80% of the defendants charged were people of color. 

Research is mixed on how a judge’s racial identity impacts their decision-making in criminal cases. Some studies have found that Black judges are more punitive though others are not. One former prosecutor said to avoid disproportionate harm to some communities, the justice system needs to reflect a diversity of life experiences and perspectives.

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Read the September 5, 2023 Bloomberg Law News article.

Read the July 30, 2023 Washington Post article.