BGL celebrates Fair Housing Month and welcomes the fight to end discrimination in housing, as promised by the Fair Housing Act. – Technologist

This April, Brown, Goldstein & Levy is proud to commemorate 56 years of the Fair Housing Act and celebrate Fair Housing Month. Our passionate team of attorneys challenge all manner 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 looking to right the wrongs they have faced. 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 maintaining foreclosed-upon homes in white neighborhoods in better condition than those in Black and Latino neighborhoods.

In another case, the landmark Thompson v. HUD, BGL worked with the ACLU of Maryland and Legal Defense Fund to obtain over $1 billion worth of housing vouchers, along with mobility counseling, to thousands of Baltimore residents, allowing them to move out of segregated communities and into communities of opportunity throughout Central Maryland. Thompson v. HUD is largely considered one of the most important fair housing cases in recent decades.

For over 25 years, Brown, Goldstein & Levy also provided legal services to Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc. (BNI), a former non-profit organization with a mission to eliminate discrimination in the provision of housing opportunities. Through our representation of BNI, 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. Brown, Goldstein & Levy successfully litigated over 30 cases throughout our relationship with BNI, winning millions of dollars for BNI’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 race-based home appraisals, 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 for every individual who call the United States home, we won’t stop fighting until it is.

Learn more about BGL’s efforts combating housing discrimination here.