The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is suing the Providence Village Homeowners Association.
By Sarah BahariStaff writer
Jan. 15, 2025 | Updated 1:45 p.m. CST
A sign welcomes people to Providence Village, Texas, Tuesday, June 21, 2022.(Elias Valverde II / Staff Photographer)
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 Newsdetail the alleged discrimination and harassment 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 fliers that said voucher recipients were bringing “unimaginable violence.” They also delivered fliers 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.”
The controversy appeared to unfold in 2021 when two teenagers, one Black and one white, got into a fight, court documents say. Some residents blamed housing voucher recipients for what they saw as an increase in crime.
About an hour north of Dallas, Providence Village has about 7,700 residents, a swimming pool, pavilions, a clubhouse and small lakes and trails. In recent years, it had grown more diverse with the share of white homeowners falling from 92% in 2018 to 77% in 2022.
Even before the fight, documents say, some residents were angry about housing vouchers and discussing ways to limit them.
At the time of the fight, about 4% of households in the village paid rent with federal housing vouchers. Of those, more than 90% were Black, according to HUD.
Over the next several months, some residents drafted an amendment to ban residents who pay rent with government subsidies and fine landlords $300 a week until those renters are gone. The association’s president, Jennifer Dautrich, organized a committee of 23 homeowners who went door to door to persuade others to vote for the amendment, the housing department says.
Both the association’s board and Cody Watson, property manager with FirstService, inundated homeowners with daily automated email reminders to vote, court documents say. By late May 2022, the amendment won enough votes, and online voting closed.
Neither Dautrich or Watson responded to phone calls fromThe News Wednesday seeking comment.
Following the amendment’s passage, roughly 600 residents faced displacement; roughly 93% were Black, and all but five households were led by women.
Fearing homelessness if they were evicted, at least 19 households moved from Providence Village, according to court documents. Some lost wages, and even their jobs, to take time off to move. Others felt unsafe due to the rhetoric and purchased security cameras.
Even after the vote, tensions grew.
In June 2022, several residents who opposed the plan gathered at the park to discuss the vote. A committee member in support of the amendment photographed the group, which included children, and posted the image to social media. The caption read, “Here’s a great pic depicting the very F----- Idiots that help to Ruin our lovely town of Providence Village!!”
Racist posts continued to fill the town’s unofficial social media pages. Some posts named specific residents who opposed the amendment. Another called housing voucher recipients “lazy entitled leeching TR@SH.” Although the pages were unofficial, many of the HOA’s board members belonged to the groups and regularly interacted.
Almost immediately, the rule drew ire from affordable housing activists, residents and landlords, who filed 53 complaints with HUD.
HBO’s John Oliver dedicated a segment of his show, Last Week Tonight, to the issue. “I know that those HOA officials might not think of themselves as racists,” Oliver said, “but 93% is a pretty solid A for racism.”
Both residents and fair housing advocates said they worried other homeowners’ associations would copy the ban. HOAs are increasingly common, with some 370,000 in the U.S. About 30% of Americans live in an HOA, and 84% of new homes sold in 2023 belonged to one.
Texas voucher holders already face enormous hurdles to find housing. A 2020 survey of multifamily properties in Collin, Dallas, Denton and Rockwall counties found that only 9% of private landlords accepted vouchers, according to the Inclusive Communities Project.
In response to the Providence Village case, the Texas Legislature in 2023 passed a law prohibiting HOAs from discriminating against tenants based on their method of payment. The law, pushed by Texas Rep. Chris Turner, a Grand Prairie Democrat, was considered a rare but big win for low-income Texans.
Providence Village said it would comply with the law and backed off its plan, even as many of the residents already moved out.
Yet federal officials say that did not happen. Instead, the homeowners association board met to discuss alternative ways to get rid of voucher holders, court documents say. In May 2024, the board passed a rule limiting owners to one rental property apiece. Because most voucher recipients in Providence Village rented from a few large landlords, the rule would have the same effect, federal officials say.
A hearing date has not been set, but the case will eventually be decided by an administrative law judge or federal district court judge, depending on what those involved choose.
Online threats continued in Providence Village. One social media post said, “Back in the day, when a community didnt like someone they banned together to make said persons life a living hell to the point they left.” Another resident threatened “they might just leave in a coroner’s wagon!!”
Still, another social media post included a photo of a Black man with a rope around his neck. The caption read, “This one is not coming back tomorrow.”
Source (Archive)
