The East Texas Fair Housing Service Center (ETFHSC) was born out of a class action lawsuit filed in 1980 by Lucille Young and others against the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The plaintiffs, limited to African-Americans living in, or on the waiting list for, public housing in East Texas, alleged that HUD had knowingly maintained segregated housing in a 36 county area, in violation of the U.S. Constitution and various civil rights laws. African Americans were segregated into the least desirable public housing—in areas of poor drainage, close to railroad tracks, water treatment plants and the poorest neighborhoods, and in units without amenities routinely provided to white residents.

One of the corrective measures required by the 1995 Final Judgment and Decree was the establishment of ETFHSC to provide mobility counseling to class members and recruit landlords into the Section 8 program. ETFHSC's goal is to create 1000 desegregative housing opportunities (DHOs), defined as the rental by a class member of a private market property located in an area with no more than 20% African-American residents (a non-impacted property). DHOs deconcentrate predominantly African-American public housing and provide Young class members housing choices so long denied them. HUD allocated 1000 Section 8 vouchers to ETFHSC for the use of class members who move into a non-impacted property.

In December, 1998, ETFHSC established Regional Offices in Texarkana, Nacogdoches and Beaumont for mobility counseling and landlord recruitment. After developing methodologies for identifying the neighborhoods capable of meeting the requirements of a DHO and for gathering basic class member data, ETHFSC began counseling and landlord recruitment in September, 1999, and saw its first full year of operation in 2000.