Posts Tagged Discrimination

Largest Settlement of State Fair Housing Claim Occurs in Arizona

Jul 28

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Fair Housing / Discrimination | No Comments

A 2007 Fair Housing complaint filed by two Arizona tenants alleging that their apartment managers discriminated against them based on their race, nationality and religion, has resulted in the largest state Fair Housing claim to date.

In 2007, Soha Abdelrahman and her husband Hany Obrahim filed a lawsuit against their Tempe, Arizona apartment managers claiming discrimination based upon their Arabic race, Egyption nationality and Muslim religion.  The defendant in the lawsuit is Texas-based Hall Financial Group, Ltd., which manages rental properties in various states — but no longer in Arizona.

The Arizona Attorney’s General Office announced that Hall Financial Group agreed to pay a total of $227, 5000 to settle the lawsuit.  $197,500 of the settlement amount will go to the tenants and $30,000 will go to the Arizona AG’s Office to enforce civil rights laws in Arizona.

The settlement did not include an admission of wrongdoing by Hall Financial Group.   However the lawsuit alleged that Hall discriminated against the tenants based on their race, religion and nationality, when the tenants applied to rent an apartment in 2006.  Allegations included claims that Hall’s agents discouraged the tenants from aplying for housing, inspected their apartment and possessions during their move-in, and ignored requests for repairs to the apartment.  The lawsuit also claimed that once the tenants alleged discrimination the managers attempted to evict them.

You can read more about this settlement in the Arizona Republic.

If you would like to learn more about Fair Housing and what the protected classes are I have written about that issue in a prior blog post as well as discussing what actions by landlords are covered under Fair Housing law.

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Housing Discrimination: What Actions Are Covered?

Nov 1

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Fair Housing / Discrimination, Protected Classes | 1 Comment

There are federal, state and municipal laws that make discrimination in the area of housing illegal.  The breadth of fair housing laws is vast and landlords should educate themselves on just what actions may be discriminatory before they get themselves into trouble.

I have previously blogged about what the various protected classes are but this post will focus on what actions may be considered to be discriminatory if they are solely based on a person’s membership in a protected classes.

The key federal law that sets forth what actions can be discriminatory within the housing context is the Fair Housing Act, which is Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.  Wisconsin, for the most part has adopted the federal laws related to housing discrimination (and has even added a few additional protected classes) and codified those laws in sec. 106.50(2), Wis. Stats.  The city of Milwaukee has its own fair housing laws which can be found in subchapter 3 of Chapter 109 of the Milwaukee Code of Ordinances.

Essentially if an individual engages in one of the following actions and does so solely based on an individuals membership in a protected class, it may constitute housing discrimination:

1.   Refuse to rent

2.   Refuse to discuss the terms of a rental

3.   Refuse to allow the inspection of rental housing

4.   Refuse to renew a lease or cause the eviction of a tenant

5.   Misrepresent the availability of housing for rent or inspection

6.   Apply different terms or conditions for the rental of housing

7.   Refuse to allow reasonable accomodations or reasonable modifications for persons with disabilities

8.   Printing, publishing or displaying advertising or notices that state or indicate a preference based on a protected class

9.   Engage in harassment, coercion, or intimidation

10.   Engage in blockbusting – which consists of efforts to induce or attempt to induce a person to rent housing by representation regarding the presence or entry of a person/s of a protected class or economic status

11.   Steering - which includes restricting of or attempt to restrict, by word or action, an individual’s housing choices

12.   Segregation by floor, building, development, or community, based on membership in a protected class.

There are additional discriminatory actions within the housing context (i.e. selling of real estate) that are also addressed in the aforementioned laws that are not listed above, but I have attempted to limit my discussion to a rental housing context.

I will spend some time in future blogs providing additional explanations for some of the above — especially “reasonable accomodations” and “reasonable modification” which I have been meaning to blog about for several months now.

It is important to remember that a landlord or manager does not need to possess the intent to discriminate in order to be found to have engaged in discriminatory behavior.  Whether a landlord or manager meant to do something is not relevant; if the action was discriminatory, it will still be considered a violation of fair housing laws.

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