Cases and Settlements

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Fair housing authorities in Seattle recently filed discrimination complaints against 13 rental property owners after on-site fair housing testing uncovered evidence of housing discrimination. The Seattle Office for Civil Rights (SOCR) reported that 12 have agreed to settlements requiring them to reimburse the city for the costs of testing, provide employees with fair housing training, provide funding for a fair housing campaign, and post fair housing notices in their pr...

On June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal fair housing law applies to discrimination claims based on their discriminatory effect on members of protected classes—even if there’s no intent to discriminate.

The Justice Department and HUD recently announced a settlement in a civil rights lawsuit against the largest affordable housing cooperative in the United States, alleging disability discrimination against people who require service or assistance animals. The community is located in the Bronx, N.Y., with approximately 15,372 residential units and 60,000 residents.

The Housing Authority of the city of Ruston, La., recently agreed to pay $175,000 and adopt comprehensive new policies to settle a race discrimination lawsuit filed by the Justice Department.

HUD recently announced that it has charged the owner and manager of a Minnesota property with housing discrimination based on national origin for refusing to rent a home to an Asian family of Hmong descent.

The owner and operator of a Massachusetts community recently agreed to pay $135,000 to settle allegations of discrimination against families with children in a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department.

In separate cases, rental communities in Kansas and Missouri and a condominium community in Minnesota recently agreed to pay a combined $280,000 to settle allegations of discrimination against families with children in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

Five housing providers in Chicago are facing lawsuits accusing them of discriminating against people who are deaf. The complaints, filed by Access Living earlier this month, allege that the housing providers violated fair housing law by denying rental options to members of the deaf community because of their disability.

A Massachusetts real estate brokerage firm recently agreed to implement fair housing training and adopt new antidiscrimination policies to resolve allegations that it discriminated against families with children in housing rentals. The firm will also pay up to $17,500, including $5,000 to the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, according to Attorney General Maura Healey.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court took up a major case involving the federal Fair Housing Act, which bans housing discrimination “because of” race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability.

The law clearly prohibits intentional discrimination—often referred to as “disparate treatment”—that is, intentionally denying housing or otherwise discriminating against anyone based on a protected chara...