Dive Brief:
- Four Georgia apartment companies have agreed to pay $750,000 to resolve allegations that they discriminated against a family of tenants on the basis of disability, per an April 30 Department of Justice press release. The settlement is the second-largest ever in an individual Fair Housing Act case.
- Indian Oaks Apartments LTD, Russell Management Services LLC, H.J. Russell & Co. and The Russell Realty LP allegedly refused to grant a mother’s repeated requests for a ground-floor apartment because her son had been diagnosed with a genetic disorder that causes permanent mobility impairment, according to the complaint filed on Oct. 23, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, Macon Division.
- “Refusing to move a terminally ill child and his family, when ground-floor units were available, was a clear violation of both law and decency,” U.S. Attorney William R. “Will” Keyes for the Middle District of Georgia said in the release. “Rental property owners and their employees must know and follow the Fair Housing Act, as denying reasonable accommodations is illegal.”
Dive Insight:
The lawsuit alleges that the owners and property managers of Indian Oaks Apartments, a roughly 150-unit complex in Fort Valley, Georgia, did not grant Sherthea Jackson’s repeated requests for reasonable accommodation over a 14-month period, per the release, even though multiple ground-floor units were available.
The defendants’ actions made it impossible for the mother to carry her disabled son in and out of the apartment without help from her older children, the release alleges. This led to “profound physical, psychological, and emotional losses for her son and lost academic and social opportunities for her older children.”
“The defendants should have moved this family with a terminally ill child to a ground-floor unit without delay,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said in the release.
H.J. Russell & Co. is the umbrella company for Indian Oaks Apartments and Russell Management Services, per the complaint, and Russell Realty LP was a general partner in Indian Oaks Apartments LTD at all relevant times. Multifamily Dive reached out to H.J. Russell & Co. for comment but did not get a response by publication time.
The defendants sold the property and Ambling Property Investments became the new property owner and manager in August 2022, according to the complaint. Within a few days of buying the property, Ambling moved Jackson and her family into an extended-stay hotel at no charge and then into a ground-floor apartment.
“Upon moving to a ground-floor unit, Ms. Jackson was able to take J.D.J. and her other children out of the apartment often to engage in general activities of daily living. The family has subsequently been able to go to events and even take small vacations because Ms. Jackson can move J.D.J. in and out of their ground-floor home,” according to the lawsuit.
Jackson filed a complaint in July 2022 with HUD, which investigated her claim and then issued a charge of discrimination, per the release. She chose to have the case heard in federal court.
In addition to paying $750,000 to the family, the defendants must comply with policy and training provisions and report reasonable accommodation requests to the department for any properties they own or operate, per the release.
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