October 18, 2021 by Clarissa Ayala
5th Circuit Rules That Coppertree Village Tenants Can Request Relocation Assistance in Court
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Houston, Texas – Tenants of Coppertree Village Apartment and Lone Star Legal Aid’s Fair Housing Team are celebrating a U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals win. In litigation that spanned over 3 years, Coppertree Tenants shared stories of the deplorable living conditions in the Section 8 Project where they lived. Unable to leave, for fear of losing their housing assistance, they desperately need to move. Now, it may be possible for that to happen.
After the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (“HUD”) failing inspection system resulted in rat bites, rodent infestations, mold, collapsing ceilings and floors, and other conditions that endanger tenants and waste government funding intended to provide decent, safe, and sanitary housing to struggling low-income families, Lone Star Legal Aid’s Fair Housing Team took action. Representing numerous tenants, Kimberly Brown Myles and Velimir Rasic partnered with the law firm of Daniel & Beshara, P.C., and together they filed a suit against HUD and Coppertree Village Apartments.
The article, ProPublica – “Pretty Much a Failure”: HUD Inspections Pass Dangerous Apartments Filled With Rats, Roaches and Toxic Mold, describes nationwide efforts to hold HUD accountable for its failure to address the thousands of units that, despite being uninhabitable, receive HUD subsidies. This is the second complaint Myles, Rasic, Daniel and Beshara, P.C. filed against HUD in Houston. Read about Arbor Court Apartment in the article, New York Times – Unsafe to Stay, Unable to Go.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that HUD’s own rules mandate relocation assistance, and its alleged decision not to provide relocation vouchers to Plaintiffs is not a decision committed to agency discretion by law and is therefore reviewable.
The Court’s ruling means that HUD’s refusal to provide relocation assistance to tenants after the complex received two Notices of Default and tenants requested assistance to move is a reviewable agency action in federal court. “These long-suffering tenants will get their day in court to request HUD assistance to move to safe, habitable conditions,” says Myles.
Lone Star Legal Aid is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit law firm focused on advocacy for low-income and underserved populations. Lone Star Legal Aid serves millions of people at 125% of federal poverty guidelines that reside in 72 counties in the eastern and Gulf Coast regions of Texas, and 4 counties of southwest Arkansas. Lone Star Legal Aid focuses its resources on maintaining, enhancing, and protecting income and economic stability; preserving housing; improving outcomes for children; establishing and sustaining family safety and stability, health and well‐being; and assisting populations with special vulnerabilities, like those with disabilities, or who are elderly, homeless, or have limited English language skills. To learn more about Lone Star Legal Aid, visit our website at https://www.lonestarlegal.org.
Media contact: Media@LoneStarLegal.org
