A Whole Foods on H Street. (Photo by Ted Eytan)

A D.C. lawyer has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the city on behalf of three native Washingtonians and CARE, a community group with over 20 members. The suit claims that the city’s housing and urban renewal policies have discriminated against some of the District’s longest-standing residents in favor of attracting millennial renters. The suit is seeking more than $1 billion in damages.

So, what exactly does it allege?

The complaint points specifically to city policies like the Adrian Fenty Administration’s Creative Action Agenda and Vincent Gray’s Creative Economy Strategy, which are specifically geared toward remaking D.C. as a city for “creative” workers. According to Aristotle Theresa, the lawyer who filed the suit, the city’s successful attempts to attract these kinds of workers have come at the cost of D.C.’s low and middle-income African American families, who have been pushed out of the city by skyrocketing housing prices.

“The city is intentionally trying to lighten black neighborhoods, and the way they have primarily been doing it is through construction of high density, luxury buildings, that primarily only offer studios and one bedrooms,” the suit reads.

Many of D.C.’s policies—like the policies of large cities across the country in the mid-aughts—were based on the work of Richard Florida, an influential urban theorist who wrote the seminal text on the “creative class.” His 2002 book The Rise of the Creative Class describes a specific kind of worker, often young and working in fields like technology, science, art and journalism. According to his theory, the key to a successful city economy lies in the hands of these workers, who have very particular ideas about where and how they want to live.

“Creatives prefer indigenous street level culture—a teeming blend of cafes and sidewalk musicians and small galleries and bistros, where it is hard to draw the line between performers and spectators,” Florida once wrote.

According to the complaint, former Mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration set about creating such an environment to attract these workers, and the two administrations since have kept it going. Theresa says these policies have been directly discriminatory on the basis of age and source of income, as well as having a disparate impact on the city’s African-American communities.

“D.C. residents’ access to rental property [is] predicated at least in part on membership in an invented discrete class which directly discriminates on source of income,” he writes in the complaint.

The suit names several defendants, including the Office of Planning, the Zoning Commission, the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, Mayor Muriel Bowser and former Mayor Adrian Fenty.

What does the city say?

Nothing so far. A response to the suit is due by June 25. The Attorney General’s Office told the Washington Post that it won’t comment on pending litigation. The Zoning Commission and the mayor’s office told DCist the same thing.

Who’s filing the suit?

Aristotle Theresa is a D.C. civil rights lawyer who lives in Anacostia. He’s represented several D.C. residents and community groups in cases fighting big redevelopment projects in gentrifying neighborhoods. He was most recently involved in the Barry Farm case, in which residents of the public housing complex successfully sued the D.C. Housing Authority for the way it was handling redevelopment. The area is being razed and rebuilt with many new (and more expensive) units, meant to economically integrate the area. Residents have been afraid of they would end up getting evicted from the complex and left without housing.

Theresa is filing the suit on behalf of three African American women who say they’re fearful of getting pushed out of the city due to redevelopment and climbing housing costs. He is also filing on behalf of a community group of more than 20 members. Theresa says they are seeking class certification for the lawsuit.

Does this stand a chance in court?

It’s hard to tell. Several times in the complaint, Theresa says that the city is “intentionally” discriminating against people based on age and source of income. This intentionality may be difficult to prove in court. Anthony Cook, a professor at Georgetown Law, says that discrimination based on source of income generally refers to landlords refusing to rent to people who use housing vouchers. The issue of whether one is in the creative class as a basis for discrimination likely won’t have a leg to stand on in court, he says.

However, Cook adds that Theresa might be able to make an argument about disparate impact—that is, the idea that city policies have had negative outcomes for certain populations, even if the city did not directly intend to discriminate.

“You can sustain a claim with regard to disparate impact under the law. It’s not just about whether the city intends to discriminate,” Cook says.

Any other context?

It’s common knowledge by now that the District has rapidly gentrified since the early 2000s. According to an analysis by Governing Magazine, 52 percent of D.C.’s census tracts are categorized as “gentrifying” since that time. The city has been bleeding black residents in that process. The lawsuit arises from that context—Theresa says that since he was a child growing up in D.C., he has believed the city is actively trying to get rid of its African American residents.

“I think [gentrification] is problematic because it strips away the heart and soul of the city,” Theresa says. “D.C. is unrecognizable. It’s a staging ground for people at a certain point in their career. It’s a pitstop, and they come and they go and they don’t offer much,” he says.

This story has been updated to reflect that the suit was filed on behalf of three people and a community group of more than 20 members.