BPI's housing work began in 1970 when Alexander Polikoff joined BPI and brought with him the Gautreaux litigation. Filed by Polikoff in 1966, against the background of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Chicago open housing marches, Gautreaux et al. v. Chicago Housing Authority was the nation's first major public housing desegregation lawsuit.
The Gautreaux lawsuit charged that by concentrating more than 10,000 public housing units in isolated African-American neighborhoods, the Chicago Housing Authority and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development had violated both the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees all citizens equal protection of the laws, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlaws racial discrimination in programs that receive federal funding. Decisions at the district, appellate and ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court levels affirmed the Gautreaux plaintiffs' position, finding both CHA and HUD guilty of discriminatory housing practices.
The Gautreaux public housing desegregation lawsuit has helped to change the face of public housing in Chicago, reform national public housing law and policy, and inspire some of the nation's most innovative housing programs.
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