Articles Tagged With: Fair Housing Laws

April 14, 2019

HUD Announces Findings In Illinois Housing Fraud Investigation

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced its’ findings related to the investigation of allegations of housing fraud by a Cook County couple. According to a press release by HUD, “… a Cook County, Illinois couple committed fraud by accepting housing assistance they were not qualified to receive in order to rent a property they jointly owned.” HUD had conducted an investigation into a married couple’s attempts to get rental assistance for a property they own in Matteson, Illinois. HUD alleges that in 2006 the couple, Korey Sloan and Christie Caldwell, and their four children “sought rental assistance from the Housing Authority of Cook County (HACC) to lease the home from Sloan, who posed as an unrelated landlord”. HUD further states that Caldwell “denied any relationship” with Sloan | more...

April 1, 2019

HUD Charges Facebook With Fair Housing Act Violations

By Bruce Reichstein

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has brought charges of Fair Housing Act violations against Facebook. HUD announced it would charge Facebook “with violating the Fair Housing Act by encouraging, enabling, and causing housing discrimination through the company’s advertising platform.” HUD’s case claims that Facebook illegally restricted “who can view housing-related ads on Facebook’s platforms and across the internet” and also that the media giant “mines extensive data about its users and then uses those data to determine which of its users view housing-related ads based, in part, on these protected characteristics” according to a press release issued by HUD. There’s more; the HUD press release also mentions a HUD claim that additionally, “Facebook combines data it collects about user attributes and behavior with data it obtains about user | more...

March 7, 2019

HUD Announces Housing Discrimination Settlement With Los Angeles County Housing Providers

By Bruce Reichstein

Housing discrimination affects home buyers at every stage of the real estate buying process including those who are in the planning stages of buying a first home and who need an apartment to live in while on the road to becoming a new home owner. HUD has announced a settlement in a Fair Housing Act discrimination case brought against the owners of a Los Angeles County company running a development in Duarte, California. In this case the complaint centers around a housing complex; according to the HUD official site, “The agreement resolves allegations that Downs, LLC and EMNA Management, Inc., the owner and manager of the development, refused to remediate mold at the property as a reasonable accommodation for a couple with disabilities and retaliated against them for asking that | more...

December 24, 2018

HUD Announces Settlement In Housing Discrimination Case

By Bruce Reichstein

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced a settlement in a New Jersey housing discrimination case. According to the HUD official site, Tamaron Association, which represents a condominium development in Waldwick, New Jersey must pay $9,000 under an Initial Decision and Consent Order. The order addresses allegations that the association refused to sell a condo to a man with disabilities and his wife, “because the couple planned to have their adult, disabled daughter live with them” according to a HUD press release. Fair Housing Act laws forbid denying or limiting housing to those with disabilities, and it is a violation of federal law to refuse reasonable accommodation for those with disabilities. “No family whose members have disabilities should be denied the reasonable accommodations they need to make | more...

October 31, 2018

HUD Announces Charges In New Jersey Housing Discrimination Case

By Bruce Reichstein

There are many types of housing discrimination, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development actively pursues complaints of Fair Housing Act violations. The most recent was announced on the HUD official site in a press release titled, “HUD Charges New Jersey Condo Association with Discriminating Against Resident with Disabilities”. According to the press release, HUD’s allegations include charges that the condo association “only allowed the resident, who is sight and hearing impaired, to use the service door instead of the main entrance to the development or the common areas when accompanied by her assistance animal.” The press release says there are other allegations, one being that the condominium association charged the resident’s daughter a fee “because she walked her mother’s assistance animal in the development’s common areas”. It is | more...

September 17, 2018

HUD Announces Settlement In Nevada Fair Housing Act Harassment Case

By Joe Wallace

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced a settlement in a Fair Housing Act case in Reno, Nevada. According to the HUD official site, the settlement involves a “…Conciliation Agreement between Reno, Nevada-based CMS Property Services, LLC, and its property manager and a female tenant, resolving allegations that the manager sexually harassed the woman.” Some are not aware that Fair Housing Act regulations include a prohibition of sexual harassment, but federal law makes it illegal for a housing provider to sexually harass tenants. The HUD official site says this rule includes, “creating a severe or pervasive hostile housing environment, or conditioning housing or housing-related services on the tenant’s acquiescence to sexual demands. The Act also prohibits retaliating against persons who complain about housing discrimination.” Often the only line | more...

June 15, 2018

HUD Settles Housing Discrimination Complaint Against San Francisco Real Estate Companies

By Bruce Reichstein

There are many types of housing discrimination; some occurs when a house hunter is searching for a home, trying to rent in the local area and encountering violations of the Fair Housing Act while trying to do so. Other types of housing discrimination can occur in the house hunting process itself. Housing discrimination may come from a variety of sources; including, in the case of a recent HUD Fair Housing settlement, real estate firms. The HUD official site announced a settlement in June in the case of two San Francisco-based real estate companies accused of Fair Housing Act violations. HUD approved “a Voluntary Compliance/Conciliation Agreement settling a complaint filed by a family whose infant has a disability against San Francisco, California-based John Stewart Company and Hunters Point East West, LP.” | more...

February 20, 2018

HUD Announces Resolution In California Fair Housing Case

By Joe Wallace

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced the resolution of a California Fair Housing Act discrimination case. According to a press release at the HUD official site, the agency has reached an agreement with the Housing Authority of the County of Contra Costa (HACCC) and the Vallejo Housing Authority (VHA), “resolving allegations that they violated the Fair Housing Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act when they allegedly denied a request by a resident with disabilities to extend her search time to find suitable housing that would accept her Housing Choice Voucher”. Fair Housing Act laws make it illegal to discriminate against those buying or renting a home by “denying or limiting housing to persons with disabilities, or discriminating in | more...

January 22, 2018

HUD Settles California Fair Housing Case

By Joe Wallace

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced a settlement in a California Fair Housing case. According to a press release on the HUD official site, the agency “has reached a conciliation agreement with the Richmond Housing Authority (RHA) in Richmond, California, settling allegations that it discriminated against a resident with disabilities.” Federal Fair Housing Act regulations prohibit the discrimination in the process of selling or renting a place to live because of the applicant’s disability. Fair Housing laws also forbid refusal to make reasonable accommodations for those disabilities. The settlement is the result of a resident’s complaint, “alleging that the Richmond Housing Authority failed to renew his Housing Choice Voucher before it expired” according to the press release. The complaint states that the resident submitted a request to | more...

December 15, 2017

HUD Announces Settlement In California Fair Housing Case

By Joe Wallace

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced a settlement in a California Fair Housing Act case. According to a press release on the HUD official site, HUD has entered into an agreement “with the owner and property manager of Shadowbrook Gardens Senior Townhomes in Morgan Hill, California, a city in Santa Clara County, resolving allegations that they discriminated against a resident with disabilities”. A tenant of that property, “requested to have a live-in aide and a key to a locked gate near her unit that would make it easier for her to come and go” according to the HUD press release, which adds that in each case, “the owner and property manager allegedly asked her intrusive questions about her disability, challenged whether she really had a disability, asserted | more...