The owners and managers of the 268-unit Summerhill Apartment complex on Benson Hill have been charged with violating the federal Fair Housing Act.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) filed the charges against Summerhill Place LLC, the owners of Summerhill Apartment, its management company GRAN Inc., and on-site manager Rita Lovejoy, according to a HUD press release issued today.
HUD’s charge of discrimination alleges that Lovejoy treated testers who posed as prospective tenants differently based on race, color, national origin and familial status, according to the press release, which is prohibited by the Fair Housing Act.
The tests betweeen April 23, 2007, and Jan. 24, 2008, were completed by the Fair Housing Center of Washington at the request of the King County’s Office of Civil Rights.
The Renton Reporter is attempting to contact the property managers for comment. The Summerhill Apartment complex is at 10415 S.E. 174th St.
“No one should be denied a place to live based on where they’re born, whether they have children, or whether they speak English,” said HUD Deputy Secretary Ron Sims in the press release. “To discriminate against any person is to discriminate against all people.”
Sims is a former King County executive who made adequate housing for all one of the hallmarks of his tenure in office.
According to HUD, Lovejoy:
• Offered a higher rent to African-American and Hispanic testers than a white tester for the same apartment,
• Gave earlier availability dates and offered apartments with newer amenities to white testers as compared to African-American testers,
• Asked Hispanic applicants if they illegally purchased social security cards, and
• Made numerous discriminatory statements to non-white testers, including telling the African-American tester that she would not tolerate loud parties or “weed smoking” and that he was “one of the good ones because you wear your pants up on your buttocks.”
According to charging documents, Lovejoy was hired in 1998. The apartment complex’s Web site lists another person now as the manager.
HUD completed another case against Summerhill this year, according to Shantae Goodloe, a HUD spokeswoman, in which a former employee alleged he was fired for having participated HUD’s investigation.
The department found that due to his performance issues, there was a non-discriminatory reason for dismissing him, Goodloe wrote in an e-mail.
HUD also had three complaints against the apartment complex in the 1990s, Goodloe wrote. According to Goodloe, two of the investigations did not find sufficient evidence to prove discrimination had occurred and the third was settled.
HUD has certified that the Washington State Human Rights Commission and the King County Office of Civil Rights enforce laws that provide rights, procedures and remedies that are similar to the federal Fair Housing Act.
Since 2005, these agencies have found 17 cases of discrimination, resulting in $23,500 in relief, according to Goodloe. During the same period, the agencies facilitated 175 settlements or conciliations that resulted in $144,257 in compensation.
A total of 659 complaints of housing discrimination have been filed in King County during those five years.
A U.S. administrative law judge will hear the charge, unless the case is referred to federal district court.
If an administrative law judge finds after a hearing that discrimination has occurred, he may award damages to aggrieved persons for the damages caused them by the discrimination, according to the press release.
The defendants also face fines and punitive damages.
