North Texas HOA charged with discrimination

DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports that federal officials accused a North Texas homeowners association of discrimination for trying to kick out residents who receive government assistance to pay rent. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development charged the Providence Village Homeowners Association, a small community in Denton County, with discriminating against Black residents. Court documents obtained by The Dallas Morning News detail the alleged discrimination and harassment that Black residents faced as the homeowners association sought to ban renters who paid with government subsidies, formerly known as Section 8 vouchers. Racist and threatening posts flooded the neighborhood’s unofficial social media pages, according to court documents. One post said, “Hide Your kids cause section 8 is on the loose!!!” In another, a resident called housing voucher recipients “wild animals.”

On two separate occasions, a white supremacist organization protested outside the development, handing out flyers that said voucher recipients were bringing “unimaginable violence.” They also delivered flyers to people’s homes that said, “Blacks bring crime and violence.” Both the homeowners association board and property management company, FirstService, knew of the various threats but did little to address them, court documents say. Representatives for the HOA and FirstService did not respond to emails or phone calls seeking comment Wednesday. Previously, the homeowners association board told The Dallas Morning News the policy aimed to address the “unprecedented uptick in egregious crimes in our community,” for which it blamed voucher recipients. Michael Daniel, a Dallas-based attorney who represents some of the former renters, said the homeowners association forced desperate families to scramble for new housing, upending children’s lives. “The harassment has been horrific,” Daniel said. “Residents feared for their lives.”