Legal Services of Eastern Missouri v. HUD (II)

In July 2019, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri (LSEM) sent a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) seeking records concerning the agency’s involvement in a plan to demolish or dispose of public housing in Wellston, Missouri. In its request, LSEM sought a full public-interest fee waiver because it had no commercial interest in the records and the requested records would shed light on HUD’s role in operating and managing public housing in Wellston and HUD’s decisionmaking about this housing, including the controversial and widely reported plan to demolish Wellston’s public housing. HUD denied LSEM’s fee-waiver request, and LSEM submitted an administrative appeal explaining the many ways in which it would disseminate the requested records to those interested in the subject, including through several local events with community members; to local elected officials, public housing tenants, business owners, homeowners, and community organizations; and to legal services organizations and affordable housing advocates across the country. While acknowledging all the ways in which LSEM stated it would disseminate the requested records, HUD upheld the denial of LSEM’s request for a public-interest fee waiver, asserting that LSEM’s dissemination would not cover “a reasonably broad group of interested parties.”

Represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group, LSEM filed suit alleging that the agency improperly denied its request for a public-interest fee waiver and improperly denied its FOIA request. The lawsuit asks the court to order HUD to produce the requested records at no charge and without delay. After we filed suit, HUD reversed its position on fee-waiver and began producing the requested documents on a rolling basis. From December 2019 through May 2021, HUD produced responsive records totaling about 10,000 pages. After HUD completed its production of responsive documents, we settled our claim for attorneys’ fees and dismissed the case.