Cary Hansel, a Baltimore-area civil rights attorney, tells the {AFRO} that he plans to file a lawsuit on behalf of residents of the Gilmor Homes public housing project. (Courtesy Photo)
A Charles Village attorney says he expects to file lawsuits on behalf of Gilmor Homes residents over the poor conditions of the units at the public housing project, lack of timely repairs, and sexual harassment of female residents seeking repairs from maintenance staff, within the next month.
The AFRO first reported on the conditions and sexual harassment faced by residents of Gilmor Homes, the notorious housing project located in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of West Baltimore where Freddy Gray lived before dying while in police custody earlier this year, on July 29, after being alerted about those conditions by organizers with Communities United.
Residents of Gilmor complained to the AFRO of years-long delays for maintenance repairs in some instances, and five separate female residents (not all of whom were quoted in the original piece) have alleged that they were sexually harassed by maintenance supervisors and one maintenance worker while seeking repairs (in separate incidents), including two women who claimed they received unwanted physical contact.
Cary Hansel, a civil rights attorney who has been practicing in Maryland for 16 years has been meeting with residents of Gilmor Homes for the past few weeks, gathering information and investigating their claims about the poor living conditions, lack of repairs, and sexual harassment at the complex.
While he believes his investigation into residents’ claims will last approximately two or three more weeks, Hansel says he expects his firm to file suit on behalf of potentially a number of Gilmor residents within the next month.
Hansel has not yet made any final decisions about appropriate defendants, and for now is only willing to say that his firm “will aggressively pursue all responsible , whether they are individuals or government agencies.”
The most obvious potential target is the Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC), a federal agency, housed under the banner of Baltimore Housing alongside the Department of Housing and Community Development, a separate and independent city agency. HABC manages Baltimore City’s public housing stock, including Gilmor Homes.
“I can tell you, at this stage, I’m confident that there are very serious problems at this project. I’m confident that it would be demonstrable in a court of law, that I could meet our burden of proof, and then some, that the conditions there are deplorable, that people have been subject to some pretty awful harassment, and that things need to change,” said Hansel during an interview with the AFRO.
At this point, Hansel says he has interviewed about six witnesses and is continuing to speak with residents and gather additional information. The fact that different residents, who do not know each other, have told him very similar stories about the conditions and harassment they have suffered while living in Gilmor, has lent credibility to their accounts says Hansel. And so has their reticence to speak.
“These are people who have been very afraid to come forward, so we’re not dealing with people who think that they’re doing this for some personal gain. They’re very afraid to come forward and it’s hard to get them to talk,” said Hansel, who added that, even with the ability to speak to residents away from Gilmor and with the assurance of confidentiality guaranteed by attorney-client privilege, it has been difficult to get residents to open up about what they have experienced.
“That also tells me that we are dealing with a very accurate picture of the facts at the location, because when people are that hesitant to come forward, and that hesitant to talk, it shows me that they have some very grave concerns,” added Hansel.
Based on the evidence he has gathered so far, the claims Hansel expects to file may include allegations of the due process rights violations of residents stemming from the offer of quid pro quo exchanges of maintenance work for sexual favors, possible claims under landlord-tenant law for the delays in conducting repairs, and tort claims stemming from the allegations of physical and verbal sexual harassment.
For Trina Ashley, an organizer with Communities United who lived in Gilmor from approximately 1983 to 2013, and who was been working with residents to fight for better living conditions at the public housing complex for about six months, a lawsuit like the one Hansel has in mind has been long overdue.
“It should’ve been done years ago,” said Ashley. “Actually, these should have been shut down years ago. They’re almost 75 years old, they still have lead and asbestos in here. These people shouldn’t be living like this.”
The Housing Authority of Baltimore City did not return an email requesting comment.
