Legal Aid of North Carolina is pleased to release its new Report “The State of Fair Housing in North Carolina 2000-2023“ Discrimination based on disability and race continued to account for the vast majority of housing discrimination complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban alleging housing discrimination in North Carolina in 2023. …
African American
10 Years After: A 2024 Look at the State of Exclusion
Housing Discrimination Case in Greenville Continues after One Defendant Sentenced to 28 Months in Federal Prison for Racial Harassment
RALEIGH, December 1, 2020—Douglas Matthew Gurkins, 34, a Greenville resident, has been sentenced to 28 months in federal prison for using racial slurs against and threatening the lives of a Black American family, consisting of a mother and her four children—a criminal violation of the federal Fair Housing Act. At the sentencing hearing, other Black …
Village of Clemmons Settles Discrimination Complaint Over Affordable Housing
RALEIGH, February 15, 2019 – On January 28, 2019, the Village of Clemmons and Village of Clemmons Village Council agreed to settle a fair housing discrimination complaint brought by two affordable developers over the Village’s refusal to allow an affordable housing community to be built. As part of the settlement, the Village has paid $150,000 to …
State of Fair Housing in North Carolina 2018
North Carolina Mobile Home Property Owners Settle Fair Housing Lawsuit
RALEIGH, February 15, 2017 – The Plaintiffs and Defendants in a federal housing discrimination lawsuit announced today that they had settled, resulting in dismissal of the federal complaint. The lawsuit alleged that plaintiffs had been discriminatorily evicted from a mobile home as a result of being in an interracial relationship. The defendants in the case denied the plaintiffs’ …
Settlement of Royal Oak Concerned Citizens Assn, et al. v. Brunswick County Lawsuit
The Royal Oak Concerned Citizens Association case against Brunswick County was resolved on June 16, 2014 with the County’s approval of the settlement agreement. See the Star News article from June 18, 2014 for more information about the settlement. The UNC Center for Civil Rights initiated the lawsuit in Brunswick County Superior Court in June …
Court Allows Justice Dept. Discrimination Case Against NC Landlord to Proceed
On August 13, 2014, United States District Court Judge Louise Flanagan refused to dismiss a lawsuit alleging a Washington, NC, landlord with racial discrimination. The lawsuit, brought by the U.S. Department of Justice in September 2012, alleges that William I. Cochran, III, and several entities that he is affiliated with discriminated against African American tenants over …
Pelham, NC, Landlord Order to Pay $36,000 for Race Discrimination
On April 10, 2014, a Virginia landlord with property in Pelham, NC, was ordered to pay $36,000 for discriminating against prospective African American tenants. The landlord, John Sylvania Matthews, III, resides in Danville, VA, and rents property in both Virginia and North Carolina. The case arose in September 2013, when an African American woman called him about a …
City of Dubuque to End Discriminatory Residency Preference in Housing Program
On April 15, 2014, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it had reached an agreement with the City of Dubuque, Iowa, to settle allegations that the City discriminated against African Americans in the administration of its Housing Choice (“Section 8”) Voucher Program. In a 2011 review, HUD had found that …