Brown, Goldstein & Levy is proud to celebrate 57 years of the Fair Housing Act and celebrate Fair Housing Month this April. Our passionate team of attorneys challenges all types of housing discrimination, fighting for clients who face discrimination in housing because of race, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, familial status, and socioeconomic status. Our clients are both organizations focused on ending housing discrimination and individuals seeking justice and fair housing. BGL’s distinguished civil rights record includes landmark victories in fair housing cases.
We currently represent the National Fair Housing Alliance and fair housing groups across the country in a lawsuit against Bank of America and Safeguard Properties Management, LLC, for failing to maintain and market foreclosed-upon homes in communities of color as well as those in majority-White neighborhoods.
In another case, Thompson v. HUD, BGL worked with the ACLU of Maryland and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to challenge the segregation of family public housing, ultimately obtaining over $1 billion worth of housing vouchers, along with mobility counseling, that have helped over 15,000 Baltimore residents move out of neighborhoods of concentrated poverty and into communities of opportunity throughout Central Maryland. Thompson v. HUD has been recognized as one of the most important cases in the first 50 years of the Fair Housing Act.
For over 25 years, Brown, Goldstein & Levy provided legal services to Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc. (BNI), a non-profit fair housing organization. We obtained the first judgment in the country under the design and construction requirements of the Fair Housing Amendments Act in the Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc. v. Rommel Builders and LOB, Inc. series of cases. We also won a $2 million verdict on behalf of BNI for discriminatory advertising by a large housing developer that used exclusively white models in its ads, a result the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights recognized with its “Outstanding Achievement Award in the Field of Fair Housing.” In all, Brown, Goldstein & Levy successfully litigated over 30 cases on behalf of BNI, winning millions of dollars for the organization’s development fund and helping to further fair housing in the Baltimore region.
Today, as discrimination has become less obvious but remains just as insidious, Brown, Goldstein & Levy continues to use innovative legal tools and strategies to achieve the goal of equal housing opportunity for all. These tools and strategies include pursuing disparate impact discrimination claims, challenging discriminatory zoning ordinances, and seeking justice for the communities and municipalities harmed by predatory lending. Though the Fair Housing Act’s promise of fair housing for all is not yet a reality, we won’t stop fighting until it is.
Learn more about BGL’s efforts combating housing discrimination here.