ICP’s predecessor, The Walker Project, was established in 1990. In 2004, The Walker Project assumed new leadership and was renamed the Inclusive Communities Project. ICP expanded the original mission to include education, research, and advocacy efforts that promote and support the creation and stabilization of inclusive communities as envisioned by the Fair Housing Act. Since 2004, ICP has pursued its mission by supporting families participating in the Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8). ICP targets families with children who desire to move to neighborhoods with housing located in areas that provide easy access to good schools, employment, and healthcare. Over the years, ICP has created programs which offer individual counseling and financial assistance to Section 8 families moving to high opportunity areas. ICP also engaged in advocacy, including litigation, to remove housing barriers, and created housing initiatives to foster affordable housing in high opportunity areas.
ICP’s leadership recognizes that pursuit of a mission as controversial and ambitious as ICP’s involves the ability to use the stick as well as the carrot. A number of the most challenging impediments to achieving ICP’s mission involve resistance to the affordable housing that could offer low-income minority families opportunities in the high opportunity, high growth, suburban, and predominantly white areas of the Dallas Metroplex. Litigation can be an effective tool in eliminating these impediments. Accordingly, ICP has retained the services of the Daniel & Beshara, P.C. law firm to provide representation and advice for ICP about matters related to ICP’s mission. For more information on ICP’s court filings and orders, go to https://www.danielbesharalawfirm.com/
