From the Texas Tribune: A neighborhood’s new anti-Section 8 rules will push many Black residents out of a North Texas suburb

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. . . In the months after Threats moved in, homeowners began to turn against the neighborhood’s Section 8 renters — who are predominantly Black. In private Facebook groups, they increasingly blamed tenants for a perceived uptick in criminal activity in Providence Village.

The wave of anti-Section 8 sentiment peaked in June, when the Providence Homeowners Association’s board passed a rule effectively banning Section 8 renters from living in the neighborhood — a move that will displace more than 150 families from the majority-white enclave.

Black families make up 93% of the 157 households with Section 8 vouchers living in Providence Village, according to the Dallas and Denton housing authorities. Women head all but five of those households.

Section 8 tenants have to leave Providence when their current leases end, according to the new rule. The homeowners association and the town are legally separate entities but share much of the same territory. That means within a year, an entire Texas town will mostly be off limits to voucher holders.

Low-income housing advocates have blasted the ban as racial discrimination. Soon after the rule was on the books, a trio of advocacy groups — Texas Housers, Texas Homeless Network and United Way of Denton County — called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether the rule violated the federal Fair Housing Act.

“This basically says that ‘there’ll be no Section 8 in our city,’” said Ann Lott, executive director of the Dallas-based Inclusive Communities Project. “So for years, we’ve had to deal with the homeowners saying ‘not in my neighborhood.’ But now we have a move afoot that says ‘not even in our city.’ That’s concerning.”

There’s nothing in state or federal law that forbids homeowners associations from enacting such bans, legal experts say, although it’s unusual for HOAs to enact them. The Texas Tribune identified two other Dallas-Fort Worth-area homeowners associations that ban voucher holders.

“I’ve literally read through thousands” of homeowners associations’ rules, said Gregory Cagle, a lawyer who deals with HOA law. “It’s not common.”

Terms:
- Section 8
- subsidizes a portion of a low-income household’s rent.
- Providence Village
- vouchers
- Providence Homeowners Association
- Low-income housing advocates
- racial discrimination
- rule
- advocacy groups
- Texas Housers
- Texas Homeless Network
- United Way of Denton County
- U.S. Department of Justice
- Fair Housing Act.
- Inclusive Communities Project
- 2015 state law essentially allows landlords to ban Section 8 recipients.
- 2017 report by Inclusive Communities Project
- Huffines Communities
- real estate firm
- Don Huffines
- Republican state senator
- developing the neighborhood in 2000.
- residents voted to incorporate Providence Village as its own municipality.
- Facebook groups
- TikTok account
- Section 8 voucher holders
- tenants and housing advocates
- local media attention
- multiple stories by the Denton Record-Chronicle
- Savannah HOA, also in Denton County
- Heartland Community Association in Kaufman County