Washington, D.C. — I am the mother of a gifted, talented young Black man. I fear for his life daily. I still have not been able to bring myself to view the full video of George Floyd’s murder by former officer Derek Chauvin. When George calls out “Mamma,” I literally weep. I cannot help but see my son. It is just simply too much to bear.
Mr. Floyd’s murder is just the latest in a heartbreakingly long list of Black people killed at the hands of police. Others over just the past few weeks includeTony McDade,Sean Reed, andBreonna Taylor. I cannot fathom the pain and anguish their families and loved ones feel over their senseless deaths.
We continue to witness time and time again the weaponization of race by White Americans against Black Americans, as was the case with Amy Cooper in Central Park, NY. In February,Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed by two White men while jogging; it took months and a public outcry for law enforcement to act in that case.
It is clear that the protests taking place nationwide are not only about George Floyd’s murder; his killing was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The justified unrest we are now witnessing is the culmination of centuries of unjust practices, lack of enforcement of civil rights laws, and structural racism that serves as a barrier to advancement for people of color.
Residential segregation is the bedrock of the inequalities we see. The Fair Housing Act, passed in 1968 just seven days after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, sought to ban housing discrimination and dismantle segregation. Failure to enforce its provisions has allowed residential segregation to continue worsening over the years. As a result, Black Americans are more likely to live in neighborhoods in which they lack access to good schools, clean environments, living wage jobs, quality credit, transit, healthy food options, healthcare, and opportunities to build wealth. Black people disproportionately live in spaces that are under-resourced and toxic. These challenges manifest in real harm and pain for people — higher rates of infection and mortality from COVID-19, lower net worth, lower life expectancy, and an inability to give children the best education possible, feed families, and be stably housed. They are compounded by the overt and implicit bias Black Americans often experience at the hands ofreal estate agents,lenders, law enforcement, health professionals, and others.
It’s time to dismantle the system of inequality that plagues our country and replace it with structures that provide fairness and equity for every person. This requires more than passing laws or creating programs. It requires sustained, effective enforcement of those laws and ensuring that programs and efforts designed to eliminate racism and increase equity have the resources and support needed to achieve their goals. NFHA‘s work is centered around dismantling racism and segregation, ending housing discrimination and promoting true equality. We stand in solidarity with every person and organization working to create a nation in which everyone has the ability to live in a safe, healthy, well-resourced, resilient neighborhood free from discrimination.
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About The National Fair Housing Alliance
Founded in 1988, NFHA is a consortium of more than 220 private, nonprofit fair housing organizations, state and local civil rights agencies, and individuals from throughout the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NFHA works to eliminate housing discrimination and ensure equal housing opportunity for all people through leadership, education, outreach, membership services, public policy initiatives, community development, advocacy, and enforcement
A Federal lawsuit has been filed against the Winston Towns Condo Association for housing discrimination, based on disability, alleging a violation of the Fair Housing Act. The complainant, who relies on a home healthcare aide, alleges that the complex’s new policy banning visitors at her condo prevents her aide from providing the care she desperately needs.
Eva Markman, a resident at Winston Towers in Sunny Isles Beach, is now alone with no access to her caregiver of four years. The 73-year-old complainant suffers from Rheumatoid arthritis, which affects her legs, arms, hands and bones. Her aide helps her with daily activities.
In response to the pandemic, it is alleged in the complaint that the condo association sent out a letter that reads, “No guests, including immediate family members, are allowed in the building. Only registered residents are allowed. Health providers that are registered with the association office will be allowed access.”
In the complaint it is alleged that when her family explained that the visitor was a home healthcare aide, the condo board ignored them and still would not allow her inside.
The Markmans are represented by attorneys Matthew Dietz and Sean Rowley, who filed the lawsuit after the condo association would not back down.
“Nothing much surprises me when it comes to condo associations. They went overboard in this circumstance,” said Dietz.
“[The condo association] never engaged with me at all as to how this could be resolved, just completely ignored the communication,” said Rowley.
Dietz and Rowley said they do not understand the condo association’s actions, especially when taking into consideration the importance of keeping disabled people out of places like nursing homes if possible, where the virus can spread very quickly.
The lawsuits shed light on how senior citizens and people with disabilities are particularly vulnerable during the COVID-19 crisis
The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) has sued eight companies that operate 16 assisted living facilities in the Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe metro areas. The lawsuit alleges the companies discriminated against prospective elderly residents who have been deaf since birth and primarily communicate in American Sign Language (ASL).
In a series of phone calls and on-site visits conducted over the past year and a half by fair housing testers on behalf of NFHA, staff of each senior living facility either refused to provide a potential elderly deaf resident with qualified ASL interpreters or other aids and services to ensure they would be able to communicate effectively, or the facility said interpretation services would be charged to the resident or their family. NFHA alleges that these acts are a violation of the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits housing providers, including senior living facilities, from discriminating against people with disabilities. The lawsuits come just weeks after the anniversary of the Act’s signing 52 years ago. The US Census Bureau’s 2017 American Community Survey found that 14.8 percent of people over the age of 65 have a hearing disability.
Fair housing laws provide distinct protections for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. These consumers have the right to interpreters or other aids to ensure they can effectively communicate with housing providers.
“Senior living facilities that deprive people of their rights are unnecessarily exacerbating housing challenges for those who are most at-risk in our society,” said Lisa Rice, President and CEO of NFHA. She continued, “Especially at a time when elderly people are among those most vulnerable to COVID-19, it is critical that the people charged with their care do all they can to provide them with the legally required services they need to ensure their health and wellbeing. For people who are deaf or hard of hearing, that includes ASL interpreters or other effective communication aids. We are filing these actions in court to hold these companies accountable.”
This case is not the first time NFHA has had to advocate on behalf of people who are deaf or hard of hearing.In 2013, NFHA and 11 of its member organizationsinvestigated 117 national or regional rental firms in 98 cities and 25 states and discovered sustained patterns of housing discrimination against apartment seekers who were deaf or hard of hearing.
Housing providers may not refuse a reasonable accommodation request from a person who is deaf or hard of hearing to have important information communicated through ASL or other effective auxiliary aids. Also, housing providers are required to provide interpretation services to people who are deaf or hard of hearing free of charge unless doing so would place an undue financial hardship on the provider.
Examples of discriminatory conduct contained in the eight different lawsuits filed today include:
● The facility’s flat refusal to provide an ASL interpreter
● The facility’s provision that it would allow an interpreter, but only if the resident or the resident’s family would pay for those services
● The facility’s recommendation that the resident’s family use a senior living placement service to find a senior living facility that better fits the needs of a potential resident
● The facility’s statement that it would not be a good fit for the prospective deaf resident
● The facility’s statement that, while it had access to ASL resources, it could not guarantee the service would be available on a continual basis and if there are costs associated with the ASL service, the resident may have to pay half of the charges
The lawsuits were filed against Brookdale Senior Living, Spectrum Retirement Communities, Pacifica Senior Living, LifeSpire Assisted Living, LeisureCare, and BeeHive Homes. These companies operate the 16 facilities (full list below) investigated by NFHA in New Mexico and Utah, covering over 1,100 beds. Brookdale Senior Living is the largest assisted living provider in the country with control of over 41,485 assisted living units nationwide. BeeHive Homes operates over 170 facilities in 20 states. With this reach, the companies have the ability to affect hundreds of thousands of families, making it critical to hold them accountable to the Fair Housing Act.
“We strongly support the protection of fair housing rights, which are always under attack, especially the rights of deaf persons,” said Diana Dorn-Jones, Executive Director of United South Broadway Corporation, an Albuquerque-based community development agency focused on fair housing and fair lending in the state of New Mexico. “We stand firmly behind the National Fair Housing Alliance in their actions to litigate fair housing laws whenever necessary.”
NFHA is represented by Eisenberg & Baum, LLP. The lawsuits were filed in the United States District Court for the District of Utah and the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico.
A federal court in Indiana has certified a class in a lawsuit challenging reverse redlining and violations of consumer protection laws in a rent-to-own housing program operated by Rainbow Realty Group, its owner James Hotka, and associated entities. Because defendants failed to seek immediate review in the Seventh Circuit the case will continue in the trial court as a class action. This is a major step toward obtaining redress for thousands of households harmed by a program that held out the promise of homeownership.
The lawsuit alleges that Defendants use the promise of homeownership to lure people into toxic “rent-to-own” contracts for dilapidated houses in the Indianapolis area, reviving predatory land contract practices that denied fair homeownership opportunities to residents of minority neighborhoods during much of the twentieth century. Relman Colfax represents the plaintiff class, which includes over 3,000 current and former Rainbow customers—many of them people of color—who entered into rent-to-own agreements with Rainbow since 2009. The firm also represents the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana, an advocacy organization promoting equal housing opportunity.
In the decision, U.S. District Judge Robert L. Miller, Jr. held that defendants’ liability for violations of the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Truth-in-Lending Act, and the Indiana Home Loan Practices Act can be determined for the entire class, and not just for individual victims. Judge Miller will also address Truth-in-Lending damages on a class-wide basis, while other aspects of damages will be determined in subsequent proceedings.
The Relman Colfax team is led by Glenn Schlactus, Jenn Klar, Yiyang Wu, Andrea Lowe and Zachary Best, with paralegal assistance from Abigail Moats, Isabel Tessier, and Allison Verrilli. Cate, Terry & Gookins is local counsel.
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