The PAC Properties lawsuit most people are searching for is Hills v. PAC Housing Group, LLC, a certified class action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana accusing the owners of the Parc Fontaine apartment complex in New Orleans of collecting rent for years while letting the property fall into uninhabitable condition. The case is numbered 2:23-cv-05740 and is assigned to Judge Barry W. Ashe. Four Parc Fontaine tenants, Alvin Hills, Donnell Matlock, Jack Martin, and Debra Jackson, filed the complaint in 2023 on behalf of everyone who lived there.
Who Is Being Sued
The defendants are PAC Housing Group, LLC, which manages the property; Richard Hamlet, the man who runs the network; and three affiliated nonprofit entities: Ministry Outreach Foundation, MOF-Preservation of Affordability Corp., and MOF-Parc Fontaine, LLC. The plaintiffs allege all five operated together and jointly failed to maintain the habitable common areas, facilities, and amenities tenants were paying for through their rent.
The lawsuit asks for the return of all or part of rent paid during the class period, plus a declaratory order spelling out what the defendants are obligated to maintain going forward. The defendants deny the allegations, and no court has yet found anyone liable.
Who Is in the Class
On March 26, 2025, Judge Ashe certified a class covering anyone who leased and lived in a unit at the Parc Fontaine Apartment Complex, 3101 Rue Parc Fontaine, New Orleans, at any point from December 1, 2018 to the present. If that describes you, you are already in the class. You do not need to file anything right now to preserve your place in the case.
The deadline for class members to opt out was October 10, 2025. Class counsel are Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. and the Jarrett Law Group, LLC.
What the Tenants Say Happened at Parc Fontaine
The complaint and local reporting describe conditions across the complex that tenants say management failed to address for years. Monthly rents at Parc Fontaine range from $710 to $1,220.
- Ceiling collapses, persistent water leaks, and mold in occupied and vacant units.
- Broken entry gates, inadequate lighting, and no security staff, with the complaint describing rising crime and open drug activity on the property.
- Swimming pools left stagnant and green behind broken gates.
- Elevators broken or blocked, laundry facilities out of service, and trash piling up in common areas.
- Fire alarm systems that the complaint says were inoperable until roughly 2023.
A September 2022 Fox 8 investigation documented individual experiences. Creston Delay, a 73-year-old resident, said water had been leaking through his sink pipes for three months, soaking his carpet to the point that he could only sleep in one dry corner of his bedroom. Another tenant, Nathan Wilson, described mold and sheetrock falling off walls from water damage. Both said management was unresponsive. After Fox 8 contacted the complex, Delay was moved to a unit without leaks or mold.
At a September 2022 New Orleans Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, Councilman Freddie King said he had personally seen mold, green pools, and broken gates at Parc Fontaine. The complaint also alleges financial irregularities: rent payments that were “absorbed” by accounts, employees who collected rent through CashApp and pocketed it, and eviction threats aimed at tenants who had paid on time.
Who Richard Hamlet Is
Richard Hamlet founded the Tennessee-based religious nonprofit Global Ministries Foundation in 2003. It was renamed Ministry Outreach Foundation in 2022. Hamlet is president, CEO, and chairman of the foundation, CEO of PAC Housing Group, and president of MOF-Parc Fontaine, LLC. The foundation wholly owns MOF-Preservation of Affordability Corp., which is the sole member of MOF-Parc Fontaine. All of the entities share a headquarters in Cordova, Tennessee.
Because MOF-Preservation is a registered nonprofit, Parc Fontaine pays no property taxes. By 2019, Global Ministries and its housing affiliate reported more than $42 million in revenue from housing complexes nationwide.
In 2016, Senator Marco Rubio took to the Senate floor and called Hamlet a “slumlord,” pointing to conditions at the Eureka Garden property in Jacksonville, Florida, including mold, structural decay, and lead poisoning at a complex receiving federal money. The Hills complaint alleges a pattern of neglect across Hamlet-affiliated properties in at least eight states, covering more than 5,000 units, and says HUD pulled funding from two Memphis complexes over poor conditions. According to the complaint, when scrutiny intensified in Tennessee, Florida, and then Louisiana, the network moved to sell properties rather than fund repairs.
Where the Case Stands Now
The case is in active litigation. There is no settlement. The defendants’ motion to dismiss was denied on April 5, 2024. A third amended complaint was filed in August 2024, and discovery continued through 2025, including a granted motion to compel initial disclosures. A jury trial had been set for August 4, 2025, with docket activity continuing into January 2026.
For class members, that means the case is still moving toward resolution. Any monetary recovery or court-ordered maintenance obligation would come later, through a judgment or settlement. If your contact information has changed since you lived at Parc Fontaine, class counsel are the people to notify so that notices and any eventual distribution reach you.
A Note on the Los Angeles Company With a Similar Name
Searches for “PAC Properties lawsuit” also turn up P.A.C. Properties, a Southern California apartment management company owned by Peter Coeler that manages roughly 2,400 units across the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles. That company has faced its own tenant lawsuits over habitability, mold, and negligence, including matters filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Despite the similar name, it is a separate operation with no established connection to PAC Housing Group, the Parc Fontaine complex, or Richard Hamlet’s nonprofit network. If you are a California tenant, the Hills class action does not apply to you.