Adams and Reese Partner Giles Perkins is on the plaintiff team representing Navigate Affordable Housing Partners, Contract Management Services, Housing Authority of the City of Bremerton, National Housing Compliance, Assisted Housing Services Corp., North Tampa Housing Development Corp., California Affordable Housing Initiatives Inc. and Southwest Housing Compliance Corp., in a case in which attorneys for the opposing side, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, plan to ask the United States Supreme Court to review a circuit court decision finding HUD should have used contracts, not grants, to fund its administration of public housing projects.
The case was featured in a Law360 article.
In a status report filed with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, HUD declared its intention to file a petition for certiorari by Dec. 5 fighting a Federal Circuit Court decision that found the agency's agreements with private companies should be subject to the more stringent competition oversight afforded to contracts, including the ability to protest. The agency also asked the district court for a stay allowing it to continue to hold off on contract awards while it seeks an answer from the Supreme Court.
The plaintiffs in the case are contractors that accused HUD of seeking to evade competition requirements in its administration of subsidized housing in 42 jurisdictions. The argument had been hashed out in the Government Accountability Office, which sided with the plaintiffs, and the Court of Federal Claims, which sided with HUD, before being overturned by the Federal Circuit.
The case is CMS Contract Management Services et al. v. U.S., case number 13-5093, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Perkins is joined by lead counsel Robert Tompkins of Holland & Knight LLP and Mike Schaengold of Greenberg Traurig LLP.