Advocacy

ICP will engage in advocacy. to promote fair and affordable housing opportunities, secure the right to such opportunities, and address the violation of  laws that protect the right to access those opportunities by low income people of color. Specifically, ICP will contribute to administrative and policy discussions at the local, state, and federal levels , and, where necessary, will engage in administrative advocacy and litigation  in furtherance of the mission of the organization.

Administrative Advocacy

IRS Petition for Rulemaking
ICP has filed a Petition for Rulemaking with the IRS seeking to have the agency adopt regulations governing the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program consistent with the agency’s obligation to affirmatively further fair housing under the Fair Housing Act.

HUD Complaint against the City of Allen
ICP has filed an administrative complaint with HUD alleging that the City of Allen, Texas has failed to affirmatively further fair housing in its housing and community development programs by refusing to address the lack of affordable housing, which was identified as an impediment to fair housing choice in the City’s Analysis Impediments.

Federal Litigation

ICP v. the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
ICP has filed a complaint against HUD claiming that HUD’s policies, decisions and formulas used to determine Dallas Area Fair Market Rents, which serve as the basis for housing authority maximum rental subsidies, racially steer Black Dallas Housing Authority Section 8 voucher participants and perpetuate racial segregation. On July 20, 2009, the Magistrate Judge issued Findings and a Recommendation that the Defendant’s motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction should be granted in part and denied in part.

ICP v. Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, et al
ICP has filed suit against Texas’ state housing finance agency for perpetuating racial segregation in Dallas and other large urban areas through their administration of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. Upon review of the Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss and ICP’s Brief in Opposition, the District Court issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order denying the Motion to Dismiss that allows the case to go forward.

ICP v. Buchanan Street Partners and Greystar Real Estate Partners
ICP filed action under the Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. § 3604(a)) against the owners of the Shadows of Cottonwood apartment complex for refusing to negotiate about participation in or participate in the Walker Settlement Voucher program as assisted by ICP, thus making dwellings units unavailable because of race or color.

ICP v. the Town of Flower Mound
Although a beneficiary of millions of dollars in federal funds and loan guarantees under the 1970s New Communities program (whose goals included racial integration of suburban cities through the creation of low and moderate income rental housing), the Town of Flower Mound has rejected the creation of low and moderate income rental housing as a means to achieve integration and has instead chosen to exclude low and moderate income rental housing and establish a predominantly White town and predominantly White and segregated public schools for the residents of Flower Mound. ICP filed action against Flower Mound after it refused to (a) negotiate or participate in an ICP program that would have provided funds to attract high quality Low Income Tax Credit rental housing and increased racial integration in Flower Mound and (b) negotiate about locations where it would grant multifamily zoning for affordable low income rental housing purposes. On July 15, 2009, the Magistrate Judge issued a Report and Recommendation that the Town of Flower Mound’s Motion to Dismiss be denied. U.S. District Judge Schneider found that the conclusions of the Magistrate Judge were correct and, on August 18, 2009, Adopted the Report and Recommendation and denied the Town’s Motion to Dismiss.

ICP v. the City of McKinney and the Housing Authority of the City of McKinney
ICP filed suit after both the City of McKinney and the McKinney Housing Authority refused to negotiate with ICP for or participate in the provision of ICP-financial assistance for the development of affordable rental housing for families in the city’s predominantly White side of town, although both were willing to negotiate and provide financial assistance for affordable housing development in its minority concentrated high-poverty side of town. On August 18, 2009, U.S. Judge Schneider for the Eastern District of Texas, following the report and recommendations of the Magistrate Judge, denied the Defendant’s Motions to Dismiss. On March 15, 2010, the Court entered a consent decree that reflected an agreement between ICP and the McKinney Housing Authority (MHA), retrained jurisdiction to oversee compliance with the terms of the Consent Decree,  and granted ICP’s motion to dismiss the City of McKinney from the case.

Key provisions in the consent decree are (i) the obligation for the MHA to annually issue requests for proposal (RFP) over the next five years for qualified developers to submit applications to TDHCA’s LIHTC program to develop non-elderly multi-family rental property in certain McKinney census tracts and (ii) MHA’s obligation to lend proceeds, from loans made by ICP to MHA, to one or more developers of non-elderly multi-family rental housing that is eligible for low income housing tax credits.

To read the McKinney Housing Authority Funding Announcement including the consent decree, click here or go to MHA’s website, www.mckinneyha.org.