Boykin v. Fenty

650 F. App'x 42
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedJune 14, 2016
DocketNo. 13-7159
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 650 F. App'x 42 (Boykin v. Fenty) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boykin v. Fenty, 650 F. App'x 42 (D.C. Cir. 2016).

Opinion

JUDGMENT

Per Curiam

This appeal from the orders of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia was presented to the court and briefed and argued by counsel. The Court has accorded the issues full consideration and has determined that they do not warrant a published opinion. See Fed. R. App. P. 36; D.C. Cir. R. 36(d). It is hereby

ORDERED and ADJUDGED that the district court’s orders filed October 4, 2012, and September 30, 2013, be affirmed for the reasons stated in the memorandum accompanying this judgment.

Pursuant to D.C. Circuit Rule 36, this disposition will not be published. The Clerk is directed to withhold the issuance of the mandate herein until seven days after the resolution of any timely petition for rehearing en banc. See Fed. R. App. P. 41(b); D.C. Cir. R. 41.

Attachment

MEMORANDUM

This case involves a challenge to the District of Columbia’s closure of a home[43]*43less shelter for men that had been located in the northwest quadrant of the District. In 2008, the District instituted a Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) program designed “to remove the chronically homeless from dependence upon shelters, placing them in housing while providing supportive services to develop or restore self[-]reliance.” Second Amended Compl. at ¶ 69 (J.A. 82). As part of the shift to PSH, the District closed both La Casa Shelter, an emergency, low-barrier housing facility for homeless men located in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in the District’s northwest quadrant, and Franklin Shelter, another low-barrier shelter in the same quadrant. After those closures, no low-barrier shelters remain in the northwest quadrant.

Appellants are forty-two predominantly black and Hispanic former residents of the La Casa shelter, some of whom are disabled. They filed suit in the district court challenging the District’s closure of the shelter. They alleged that the District’s action discriminated against them based on their race, disability status, and place of residence in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA), 42 U.S.C. § 3601 et seq., the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., and the District of Columbia Human Rights Act, D.C. Code § 2-1401.01 et seq. After permitting appellants to amend their complaint, the district court dismissed all but one of the counts under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim. See Boykin v. Gray, 895 F.Supp.2d 199, 206-10, 214-20 (D.D.C. 2012). With regard to the remaining count, which alleges disparate impact based on race under the FHA, the district court subsequently granted summary judgment in favor of the District. See Boykin v. Gray, 986 F.Supp.2d 14, 30 (D.D.C. 2013).

Appellants now appeal the dismissal of the following counts: disparate treatment based on race under the FHA, disparate impact based on disability under the FHA/ ADA, and disparate treatment based on disability under the FHA/ADA. They also appeal the grant of summary judgment to the District on the FHA claim of disparate impact based on race.

For purposes of our review, it is undisputed that the operative complaint — as the district court held — is the Second Amended Complaint. See Boykin, 895 F.Supp.2d at 221 n. 18. We review de novo both the dismissal of appellants’ claims and the grant of summary judgment to the District. See Kassem v. Wash. Hosp. Ctr., 513 F.3d 251, 253 (D.C. Cir. 2008); Tate v. District of Columbia, 627 F.3d 904, 908 (D.C. Cir. 2010). We affirm the district court.

We note, at the outset, that it has been challenging to discern the underlying theories for each of appellants’ claims, as their complaint and briefs are often difficult to follow. The Second Amended Complaint, for example, included 158 pages of attachments, the relevance of which was not always clear. In a footnote, the complaint also purported to incorporate several previous filings, again without providing any indication of their relevance in the body of the complaint. The district court rejected the attempted incorporation, and appellants do not appeal that rejection. See Boykin, 895 F.Supp.2d at 205 n. 5 (citing Fed. R. Civ. P. 10(c)). Accordingly, we review the district court’s dismissals based on the allegations in the Second Amended Complaint alone. The difficulty in comprehending appellants’ claims was compounded by the fact that, in several sections of their briefs,' appellants failed to provide citations to the paragraphs of their complaint or the exhibits on which they were relying, see, e.g., Appellants’ Br. 48-49, 53-[44]*4454, in violation of Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 28(a)(8)(A). We have, however, endeavored to construe their claims and evidence fairly, and we find no error in the district court’s assessment that each fails.

First, the district court correctly dismissed appellants’ claim that the District’s closure of the shelter produced an unlawful disparate impact based on appellants’ disabilities, To survive a motion to dismiss a claim of disparate impact under the FHA or the ADA, a plaintiff must allege that a facially neutral practice or policy has a disproportionate impact on persons with disabilities. See, e.g., Mhany Mgmt., Inc. v. Cty. of Nassau, 819 F.3d 581, 616-18 (2d Cir. 2016); J.V. v. Albuquerque Pub. Sch., 813 F.3d 1289, 1299 (10th Cir. 2016). The complaint failed to allege facts suggesting that the closure affected a greater proportion of disabled individuals than non-disabled, as it did not, for instance, include an allegation that disabled homeless individuals are more likely to rely on low-barrier shelters than non-disabled homeless individuals. Appellants alleged only that some of them have disabilities and that the shel- . ten’s closure makes it more difficult for those appellants to obtain services. Allegations about the appellants’ individual experiences accessing services, however, say nothing about whether the shelter’s closure had a disparate impact on persons with disabilities’ access to housing as opposed to persons without disabilities’ access to housing. The complaint therefore fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

Second, for similar reasons, appellants’ complaint fails to state a claim for disparate treatment based on disability.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
650 F. App'x 42, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boykin-v-fenty-cadc-2016.