Legal Aid of North Carolina receives award from the NC Low Income Housing Coalition
April 24, 2003
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LANC executive director George Hausen (middle) accepts the
"Sister Barbara Sullivan Award" at the NCLIHC meeting on April 24, 2003.
r-l, Stella Adams (NC Fair Housing Ctr.); Stephon Bowens (The Land Loss
Prevention Project); and Hausen. |
(Raleigh) - At its spring conference at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in the
Research Triangle Park, the NC Low Income Housing Coalition (NCLIHC) presented
the "Sister Barbara Sullivan Award" to Legal Aid of North Carolina.
The award recognized the work of LANC's attorneys for extraordinary leadership
on behalf of low-income North Carolinians in the case of Berry, et al, v. Town
of Tarboro, et al, which removed barriers for low-income housing development in
the Town of Tarboro.
Fourteen Tarboro residents became named plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in
September 2001. The residents sued the Town of Tarboro. In their complaint, the
residents alleged that the Town discriminated against them on the basis of race
and familial status in violation of the Fair Housing Act when it adopted the
March 2000 moratorium on multi-family housing and amended its Unified
Development Ordinance (UDO) in May 2000.
Following a year of discovery that included dozens of depositions, the
residents and the Town agreed to mediation in January 2003. During mediation,
the Town agreed to the changes to the UDO and a total of $95,100 in monetary
damages for the plaintiffs. The residents in turn modified their damages claims
against the Town.
The settlement opens the door for the development of affordable multi-family
housing in areas that had been restricted by the Town’s changes to its Unified
Development Ordinance (UDO) following the Hurricane Floyd floods.
The staff from LANC-Wilson Office lead a litigation team during this two-year
battle. The litigation also included attorneys from LANC-Greenville
Office, Advocates for Children's Services, the LANC Administrative Office, the
North Carolina Justice & Community Development Center, the Land Loss Prevention
Project, local private counsel and the NC Fair Housing Center (NCFHC).
The NCLIHC established the "Sister Barbara Sullivan Award" in 2000 in honor of
board member Sister Barbara Sullivan, whose goal was to establish a continuum of
affordable, decent housing, particularly to serve the needs of the very
low-income and homeless populations. This award is presented to someone or
an organization that has devoted itself to improving housing conditions for
low-income and homeless families, through volunteer efforts or individual
initiative.
click
here to view the April 29, 2003
media release regarding the settlement of the Tarboro case.
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Mission Statement
Legal Aid of North Carolina is a statewide, nonprofit law firm that
provides free legal services in civil matters to low-income people in
order to ensure equal access to justice and to remove legal barriers
to economic opportunity.