Larry Griffin-Sledge enjoys his North Senate Avenue apartment because it is conveniently located downtown and it’s affordable. But if federal housing officials get their way, he says, he will be forced to move.

“They [federal officials] have come along and are trying to bum-rush everyone out,” said Griffin-Sledge, a 55-year-old self-employed musician.

So with the aid of Indiana Legal Services, Griffin-Sledge and other residents at 545 and 548 N. Senate Ave. are suing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in federal court. The suit, filed late last month, charges HUD with “illegally terminating the Project-based Section 8 contract on 77 units comprising the Senate Manor Apartments.”

It also alleges the termination will result in the loss of residents’ rights of due process and “the potentially high risk of homelessness, or, in the alternative, the risk of relocating to housing that is not safe, decent and sanitary” and potentially “in a neighborhood that is more racially segregated and poverty concentrated.”

“There is no doubt the building has problems,” said Legal Services attorney Roderick Bohannan. “But we also think IHA [the Indianapolis Housing Authority] and HUD are trying to empty out the building.”

Local HUD officials referred questions to the HUD regional office in Chicago. A spokeswoman in Chicago said she was unfamiliar with the issue but still could not comment directly on the case “because it is an on-going suit.”

The suit seeks an injunction against HUD from requiring residents to move while the issue of the housing units failing to meet federal housing standards is being resolved.

According to Bohannan, the apartments overwhelmingly passed a HUD inspection three years ago but failed last year. Griffin-Sledge said the apartment owners have challenged that last inspection, but that could not be confirmed.

Griffin-Sledge said HUD offered residents Section 8 vouchers to use in other properties, but there are no other Section 8 units available downtown. He said he thought the vouchers were good for about 60 days.

Bohannan said loss of the Senate Manor apartment units would mean there are only four locations downtown in which low-income residents could find affordable housing, and that it will probably be difficult for the Senate Manor residents to find any affordable housing in other parts of the area.

“IHA has admitted ... there is a serious shortage of low-income housing in the Indianapolis housing market,” the suit alleges. “IHA has stated that one in four recipients of vouchers from IHA’s Section 8 voucher program is unsuccessful in securing housing.”

Bohannan said all the new housing stock being added downtown is for the upscale market of more than $350,000 a unit, which is far out of reach for low-income residents. But he stopped short of saying the city is deliberately trying to push all low-income residents out of downtown.