A settlement has been reached in a Lowell civil rights lawsuit involving displaced residents of an affordable housing complex.

Filed in 2001, the lawsuit, Melissa Mendonsa and others v. Lowell Housing Authority and city of Lowell, challenged the relocation of public housing tenants in Lowell following demolition of their homes in 2003.  The lawsuit alleged the Lowell Housing Authority relocated the Julian D. Steele (JDS) public housing complex tenants to the more racially-segregated areas of Lowell and that the city sited “replication” housing required by a special 2000 law in higher-minority, higher-crime and less desirable areas. 

The plaintiffs claimed the city’s and LHA’s actions perpetuated segregation throughout Lowell and did not affirmatively further fair housing as required by state and federal civil rights laws.

The settlement creates a Mobility Program to help the former JDS residents move to decent, safe and sanitary housing in neighborhoods of their choice, including in opportunity areas that are racially integrated and have other positive attributes. The city will provide replication units in these opportunity areas.