The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Southwest Key Programs, alleging that the largest private care provider of housing for unaccompanied children in the United States had subjected minors to “severe or pervasive sexual harassment” in violation of the Fair Housing Act.
Southwest Key is a nonprofit operating 29 shelters that provide temporary housing to around 6,350 unaccompanied minors in Texas, Arizona and California, according to the filing.
The organization receives grants from the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement for their services, and the DOJ said that between the years of concern—2015 through at least 2023—the organization received over three billion dollars in HHS funding.
Given its acceptance of federal funds, Southwest Key “is responsible for ensuring it will operate its shelter care in a non-discriminatory manner, and it made express contractual assurances it would comply with all federal statutes relating to nondiscrimination, including the Fair Housing Act,” the court documents said.
The DOJ alleges that the Austin, Texas-based organization failed to meet these standards and violated the Act with patterns of sexual abuse.
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Newsweek reached out to Southwest Key Programs via email on Thursday for comment.
From 2015 through at least 2023, the filing states that multiple employees of the nonprofit “have subjected unaccompanied children in their care to repeated and unwelcome sexual abuse, harassment, and misconduct and a hostile housing environment,” which the DOJ detailed as including instances of “sexual abuse and rape, solicitation of sex acts, solicitation of nude photos, entreaties for sexually inappropriate relationships, sexual comments and gestures, leering, and inappropriate touching.”
The document stated that employees sometimes “threatened children to maintain their silence,” noting that the aggrieved children ranged in age from five-years-old to 18-years-old.
The filing provided several examples, including one of an employee who repeatedly entered children’s bedrooms and inappropriately touched them before threatening to “kill their families if they disclosed the abuse.”
The staff also allegedly either failed to report or at times concealed incidents of the ongoing abuse.
The lawsuit revealed that at least two Southwest Key Programs employees have been charged with criminal indictments for their sexual misconduct with children since 2020.
In response to the lawsuit, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a press release: “HHS has a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, inappropriate sexual behavior, and discrimination.”
Becerra added that the complaint “raises serious pattern or practice concerns.”
The case was filed in the Western District of Texas, where U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza stated, “Every child has the right to feel safe and secure in their dwelling, including in shelter care. This lawsuit seeks to provide a pathway for justice and healing for these children, who are among the most vulnerable in our society.”
The filing concluded with a request for a jury trial.
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