Feds Sue Lone Wolf Housing Authority For Discrimination

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December 16, 2020

By News Director Jared Atha

The U.S. Department of Justice has sued the affordable housing agency in Lone Wolf for allegedly denying housing to a Black mother and her 5-year-old daughter because of their race.

According to the Associated Press, the Justice Department’s civil rights division announced the lawsuit Tuesday against the Housing Authority of the Town of Lone Wolf and two of its former employees. Federal prosecutors allege authority officials told a white applicant they had units available, but changed their story for a black applicant.

When officials with Legal Aid, a group helping the woman get housing, conducted a test, they say housing authority officials told a white woman there were multiple apartments available and showed her three vacant ones. The next day, the same officials told a Black woman there were no units available, according to prosecutors.

The lawsuit seeks monetary damages for the mother and a court order prohibiting further discrimination.

Less than 1% of the town’s roughly 400 residents are Black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.