Federal officials have rejected an unfair housing complaint filed against the City of Miami by three community groups who contend that the city’s planning and zoning policies resulted in the large-scale displacement of Black residents in the West Grove.
In rejecting the claim, federal officials at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sided with the City of Miami, which denied the allegation and challenged the “standing” of the parties who brought the complaint.
“HUD determined that the claimants were without specific injury or harm, and therefore lacked standing,” lawyers for the three community groups and one individual claimant said in a statement shared with the Spotlight on Saturday. HUD’s decision was issued on September 16.
The complaint contends that hundreds of Black residents living on or near Grand Avenue in the West Grove were pushed out of the neighborhood because of unfair and discriminatory land-use and zoning policies put in place by the City of Miami.
READ MORE: Coconut Grove groups accuse City of Miami of housing discrimination against Black residents
Those policies incentivized developers to acquire and then demolish or shutter 18 multi-family residential buildings, displacing at least 162 people and hollowing out the neighborhood, in violation of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the complaint contends.
“We believe that this finding ignores well-established procedural case law, fails to take into account quantitative and qualitative data, and prevents dialogue about the merits of the facts and claims,” the attorneys said in their written statement.
The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of race. In the case of the West Grove, the City of Miami’s policies had a “disparate” impact on Black residents, the complaint says, and reinforced segregated housing patterns by pushing residents into other segregated communities.
(See “West Grove Housing Complaint Advances”)
One of the residents who was pushed out of the neighborhood – Akinshimaya Nnamdi – joined the three community groups in bringing the complaint in July 2023.
Nnamdi and her mother were evicted from their West Grove apartment in 2017.
Six years earlier, the City of Miami rezoned six blocks of Grand Avenue between Plaza and Margaret Streets, including the property where Nnamdi lived, to greenlight a massive redevelopment project.
Nnamdi’s apartment building was subsequently sold and knocked down. Today, the property at 3471 Grand Avenue stands empty. Nnamdi, who moved to Miami Gardens, went on to pursue an academic career as a scholar on gentrification and displacement.
Lawyers for Nnamdi and the three community groups – the Coconut Grove Ministerial Alliance, Grove Rights and Community Equity (GRACE), and Village West Homeowners and Tenants Association (HOATA) – say the decision does not end the case.
“We have requested and are pending HUD’s investigative report,” the lawyers said in their statement. “Together, we believe that this does not close the door on a possible remedial action. The case is ongoing and the claimants and their legal team are motivated to forge a path forward.”
For West Grove community leaders who have sought to hold the City of Miami accountable for the dismemberment of their community, however, HUD’s decision was a major disappointment.
“Our hopes were dashed by HUD’s decision, in that responsibility remains unproven for the displacement and removal of vulnerable individuals and families from our community,” Clarice Cooper of HOATA told the Spotlight.
“We at GRACE and HOATA didn’t jump into this spuriously (and) we are still hoping for a judicious outcome,” added Reynold Martin of GRACE. “We feel that people have been harmed, and the city knows this.”
In recent months, the Trump Administration has sought to restrict HUD’s enforcement of the landmark Fair Housing Act, according to the New York Times and others. Martin sees those efforts at play in HUD’s decision on the West Grove complaint.
“What complicates this case is the Trump Administration saying let’s not emphasize these types of complaints,” Martin said.
HOATA and the other claimants are represented by attorneys at the Community Justice Project in Miami and the Center for Ethics and Public Service at the University of Miami School of Law. Both sets of lawyers declined interview requests from the Spotlight.
This story was originally published in the Coconut Grove Spotlight, a WLRN News partner.
