In a highly controversial move this year, the Trump administration abandoned a years-long investigation into housing discrimination allegations against the Providence Village Homeowners Association (HOA) in North Texas — even after the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had formally charged the HOA, and its property management company, with racial discrimination under the Fair Housing Act.
HUD’s investigation found that Providence Village, a suburban Denton County community of about 9,000 residents, enacted rental restrictions that effectively barred families using Housing Choice Vouchers from living there. These vouchers subsidize rent for low-income families, a group that in Providence Village consisted overwhelmingly of Black households. HUD charged the homeowners association with race and color discrimination in January, alleging violations of the Fair Housing Act.
According to court documents and media reporting, Black residents were targeted with racist and derogatory remarks, including other residents describing them as “ghetto,” “lazy,” and “wild animals.” One community member even went so far as to say Black residents would be leaving “in a coroner’s wagon,” per a March ProPublica article.
Moreover, HUD’s charge detailed that the HOA and its management repeatedly took discriminatory action by prohibiting rental agreements with voucher holders and adopting subsequent rental policies with similar exclusionary effects — conduct that HUD determined would make homes unavailable to people because of their race or color. When the rental rules took effect, voucher tenants and their families endured significant hardship. Many were displaced from Providence Village and forced to find new accommodations on short notice — even if they were in the middle of their leases.
In January, HUD referred the case to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for potential litigation, signaling that HUD believed the evidence was strong enough for federal court enforcement. But less than a month later, the Trump administration rescinded that referral. The DOJ ultimately decided not to file charges against the HOA or its management, even after HUD’s formal discrimination determination. Federal agency spokespeople publicly stated little more than terse notices that the referral was being withdrawn, and didn’t offer any detailed rationale for abandoning the case.
This decision left the families who filed complaints and community members who experienced displacement, harassment, or a climate of racial hostility without support from the federal government to seek justice and ensure they could fairly access housing in the village.
With the government unwilling to fight for their rights, residents had to turn to private attorneys. Currently, the HOA and property management company face three separate lawsuits in federal court brought by current and former residents, landlords, and housing authorities. The lawsuits reiterate the findings in the HUD charge and also allege that residents suffered racial harassment, emotional harm, and economic loss because of the HOA’s actions.
A major concern is that, by dropping the case, the Trump administration has undercut the enforceability of federal housing protections and sent a message that local entities can evade accountability even after HUD finds reasonable cause to believe discrimination occurred. To show discrimination will not continue unchecked, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) joined a class action lawsuit to ensure voucher holders and other community members harmed by the rental restrictions are no longer subject to racial discrimination. This sends a clear signal that, for the families uprooted by Providence Village’s policies, and for advocates hoping to preserve the promise of fair housing laws, the fight is not over.