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How Should You Respond to Tenant-on-Tenant Harassment?

Q: A tenant on the third floor tells you that one of your white tenants (Ms. W) has been steadily barraging her Black neighbor (Ms. B) with racial slurs over the course of several years. Although you’ve always suspected that Ms. W was a bit of a racist, you’re utterly shocked that Ms. B has never once complained—and neither have any of your other Black tenants. What you should do?

HUD recently announced that the owner, management company, and a former property manager of an Atlanta community have agreed to pay $10,000 to settle allegations that they violated the Fair Housing Act by refusing to allow a resident with disabilities to transfer to a ground-floor unit.

In our November 2012 lesson, “Be Prepared for Fair Housing Testers,” the Coach reviews recent developments that point to a renewed emphasis on traditional fair housing testing. With the influx of millions in HUD funding earlier this year, state and local enforcement agencies and private fair housing organizations are gearing up to recruit, train, and deploy fair housing testers. Now more than ever, it’s important to ensure your community complies with fair housing law—that way, you’ll be likely to pass any fair housing test.

There’s an update to a case we reported in the November 2011 issue of Fair Housing Coach: A federal appeals court has dismissed a fair housing case filed against an online roommate-matching service, Roommates.com, ruling that the Fair Housing Act (FHA) does not apply to shared living arrangements.

The owner of a Pennsylvania apartment complex recently agreed to pay $15,000 to settle claims that the development’s on-site manager discriminated against families with children. Last summer, HUD charged the owner and manager with charging families higher rent when they have children and indicating a preference against families with children. Under federal fair housing law, it is unlawful to impose different rental charges and terms of a lease on households because of the presence of children.

In honor of Fair Housing Month, the April 2012 Fair Housing Coach tackles some of the frequently asked questions (FAQs) about fair housing law in conventional multifamily housing communities. Here are seven of the 17 FAQs from the April issue, available on our homepage:

Last month, the Justice Department announced a $20,000 consent decree that resolves a lawsuit alleging that a Utah condominium association and its management company violated federal fair housing law by refusing to grant a resident’s request for a reasonable accommodation.

The U.S. Supreme Court will not review a controversial fair housing case after all. The case, highlighted in the January 2012 Fair Housing Coach, centered on disparate impact claims under the Fair Housing Act (FHA). While everyone agrees that the FHA bans intentional discrimination, the issue was whether the FHA also bans policies, which are not intentionally discriminatory, but have a disparate impact—that is, an unfair negative effect—on racial minorities or other protected classes.

A company that owns and operates multifamily rental housing in Evanston, Ill., has backed away from plans to limit occupancy in one of its buildings to only Northwestern University students, according to the Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs, an advocacy group that filed a federal fair housing case protesting the policy.

Last fall, the Justice Department issued new ADA rules that take full effect on March 15, 2012. Among other things, the new rules adopt scoping provisions establishing accessible design standards, including standards on making swimming pools, exercise clubs, and other recreation facilities accessible for individuals with disabilities.