Thompson v. HUD
john powell is an expert witness in the federal district court case Thompson v. HUD. One of the most significant potentially precedent setting fair housing cases in recent years. The two primary plaintiff’s are NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) who has joined the ACLU of Maryland as co-counsel in Thompson v. HUD. They are representing African Americans in a Baltimore case with far-reaching implications about the concentration of Blacks in public housing in urban centers across America.
The ACLU of Maryland filed the lawsuit in 1995 on behalf of a class of approximately 14,000 African American tenants, former tenants, and prospective tenants of Baltimore City public housing developments. Plaintiffs alleged that HUD denied Baltimore's African American public housing residents opportunities to locate throughout the region and instead concentrated them in predominantly minority areas within the city limits in violation of the Fair Housing Act.
In January 2005, the District Court found HUD liable for failing to take affirmative steps to implement an effective regional strategy for desegregation and poverty deconcentration in Baltimore. The court found that HUD's programs "failed to achieve significant desegregation in Baltimore City." As Judge Marvin J. Garbis explained, "Baltimore City should not be viewed as an island reservation for use as a container for all of the poor of a contiguous region."
Director powell has been an expert witness in the case both during the liability phase in 2003 and during ongoing remedial phase. As part of the remedial phase, director powell designed a potential remedy to desegregate Baltimore’s public housing. His recommendation to use the “communities of opportunity” approach in the Baltimore region to remedy HUD’s fair housing violation has been embraced by both the NAACP LDF and Maryland ACLU.
“We intend to secure a remedy that will help African American public housing residents undo the harms they have suffered for more than sixty years because of HUD’s discriminatory policies. We believe that this case, in Thurgood Marshall’s hometown, is the most important housing desegregation lawsuit in a generation.”
-Theodore M. Shaw, NAACP LDF Director-Counsel and President
Materials:
The following are excerpts from Director powell's expert remedial report in Thompson v. HUD.
- Executive Summary and Overview
- Background on the Communities of Opportunity Framework
- Identifying Communities of Opportunity in Baltimore
- Additional Remedial Principles
- Maps
- Tables
- Images from High and Low Opportunity Areas
Additional Materials:
