Justice Dept. Resolves Lawsuit Against Lone Wolf Housing Authority

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January 4, 2022

By News Director Jared Atha

The Justice Department announced this week that it has obtained a settlement agreement with the Housing Authority of the Town of Lone Wolf in Kiowa County and two of its former employees to resolve allegations that they violated federal law when they denied housing to a mother and her young daughter because of their race. Under the settlement, the Housing Authority and the two employees must pay $75,000 in damages and take other actions to remedy their violations of the Fair Housing Act and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Under the consent decree, which was approved by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, the defendants will pay a total of $65,000 to the applicant and her child, and $10,000 to the Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma Inc., whose fair housing testing exposed the Housing Authority’s discriminatory conduct in December 2020.

In addition, the consent decree requires the Housing Authority employees and board members to undergo training on the Fair Housing Act and Title VI, implement nondiscriminatory procedures and submit to compliance and reporting requirements.

According to prosecutors, 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.

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