Shriver Center, Chicago Lawyers' Committee Settle Voucher Segregation Lawsuit

In a settlement preliminarily approved on March 15, in Wallace v. CHA , the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law agree with the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) that the CHA’s current programs for families making the initial move from public housing and its modified program for residents who have moved represent “best and reasonable efforts” to assist the residents in exercising their own choices to relocate to economically and racially integrated communities.

In January 2003 a group of current and former public housing residents, represented by the Shriver Center and the Lawyers’ Committee, sued the CHA for failing to develop a program to assist them in relocating to racially integrated communities in the private market. Thousands of families living in public housing had been or would be relocated temporarily or permanently to subsidized private housing with Housing Choice Vouchers (formerly known as Section 8 Vouchers) as part of the CHA’s Plan for Transformation.

Throughout the litigation, the parties engaged in cooperative settlement negotiations regarding the CHA’s current programs and plans to assist in relocating residents.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the CHA retains the authority to change existing or future programs, subject to its commitment to use “best and reasonable efforts” to provide programs to assist class members in exercising their own choices to move to economically and racially integrated neighborhoods. The CHA will give plaintiffs’ counsel ongoing access to information regarding relocation and social service programs for public housing families available through CHA, CHAC Inc. (the administrator of the Housing Choice Voucher program in Chicago), and the Chicago Department of Human Services. Although the case will be voluntarily dismissed as a result of the settlement, the plaintiffs retain the right to apply to the court to reinstate the lawsuit within three years of the effective date of the settlement agreement if they believe that the CHA is breaching the settlement agreement.

CHA and CHAC Inc. will also modify CHAC’s Housing Opportunity Program for CHA residents who have moved. The current program helps families who already live in private housing with Housing Choice Vouchers to move from high-poverty to low-poverty neighborhoods. The modified program available to former public housing residents focuses on the benefits of racially diverse neighborhoods.

Sharon Legenza, director of the Fair Housing Project at the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee and cocounsel on the case from its inception, expressed optimism on the settlement. “We are pleased that these families now have additional tools for moving to neighborhoods where they really want to live,” she said.

The federal court for the Northern District of Illinois will hold a hearing on May 31, 2005, at 9:00 a.m. to determine whether to approve the settlement. Class members will receive notice of the hearing and will have an opportunity to submit written objections and appear at the hearing if they choose.

For more information, contact William Wilen , Kate Walz , or Raj Nayak at the Shriver Center.