Mintz Levin lawsuit seeks relief for Katrina victims

Boston law firm Mintz Levin said it has filed a lawsuit against a federal agency over claims that Hurricane Katrina-related relief dollars were improperly diverted away from poorer residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Specifically, the suit is on the behalf of the Mississippi State Conference NAACP, Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center, and several individual residents from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, said the firm, whose full name is Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC.

The suit was filed today against the US Department of Housing and Urban Development in the US District Court in Washington, D.C., Mintz Levin said.

When Congress appropriated more than $5 billion in hurricane-relief aid to Mississippi, one requirement was that at least half of the funds would benefit low and moderate-income people, Mintz Levin said.

But to date, only 13 percent of Mississippi's emergency funds have been directed to activities that might benefit the affected region's poorer residents, asserted Mintz Levin, which added that it is working on the case pro bono.

The firm said in a press release, "The lawsuit asks the court to require HUD to exercise its authority to disapprove Mississippi's plan to spend almost $600 million of CDBG funds on a project that would expand the Port of Gulfport, but would provide no housing and precious few jobs for the poorer residents of the state's Gulf Coast."
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)