Officials in Decatur, Alabama, gave white renters access to waterfront public housing while segregating black renters in separate buildings, according to a report from the federal government.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development found that 94% of the tenants in two public housing structures with a view of the Tennessee River were white. All of the public housing units located further away from the waterfront were rented to black families. The study was first reported by the Decatur Daily on Sunday.
The department found that black families were passed over as the two housing structures filled with elderly white residents. Officials from the Decatur Housing Authority claimed that elderly black individuals did not like high-rise buildings with views of the water. They claimed black renters preferred “garden-style units so they can sit on their porch and come and go as they please.”
The Decatur Housing Authority settled claims for $200,000 following the federal government’s investigation into the claims of segregation. The $200,000 will be distributed by the Housing and Urban Development Department to victims of discrimination. The Decatur Housing Authority also vowed to put $1 million in renovations to the “garden-style” facility where many black residents were placed.
Decatur’s discrimination scheme was part of a larger investigation conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Justice Department in Alabama and Mississippi, though Decatur’s discrimination was the “most egregious.”
