In a move heralded as “historic” by U.S. District Senior Judge Thomas Hogan, the District of Col­umbia last month ended more than three decades of court oversight of the city’s mental health system.

But the litigation was only one of more than a half-dozen class actions lodged against the District decades ago for its failure to provide basic social services. The cases, and the court supervision that followed, have proved costly and time-consuming for the cash-strapped city.