Dive Brief:

• Austin, Texas-based property owner and manager Eureka Multifamily Group has been denied a full summary judgment in a racial discrimination case brought by an ex-employee. As a result, the case will go to trial, which is scheduled for Sept 24.
• Alia Carter, a Pennsylvania resident identified in court documents as an African-American woman, alleges that her job duties were altered in a discriminatory fashion while she was employed by Eureka. Carter penned a letter to the company detailing her discrimination, after which she was placed on paid leave and then terminated.
• United States District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand granted Eureka’s summary judgment request on some counts but not on others. She noted a significant difference in stated facts between the two parties, and said that “a reasonable juror” could see pretext for racial discrimination in the events as they unfolded.

Dive Insight:

Eureka Multifamily Group manages 23 communities across six states — Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Tennessee — encompassing over 5,200 apartments, including 2,264 affordable units, according to the company website. 

Carter was hired by Eureka in June 2021 as a regional property manager responsible for six properties in Pennsylvania and Ohio. One of these properties was the Greenbelt Place Apartments in Toledo, Ohio, which she was required to visit at least once a month, traveling three hours from her home to stay for three days at a time.

Greenbelt, identified in court documents as a property with a predominantly African-American population, was declared a nuisance property by the city of Toledo in September 2021, shortly after a group of residents submitted a list of complaints about the property’s conditions to its owner, according to local news affiliate 13 ABC. 

In October of that year, Carter was informed that she would be reassigned as property manager of Greenbelt, focusing on the property full-time five days per week. According to Carter’s suit, Eureka’s vice president had told her that she was going to be the “face” of the property.

To Carter’s knowledge and belief, this reassignment constituted a demotion, a commuting hardship and an attempt to use her race as a means to “smooth over the political storm” caused by Greenbelt’s nuisance property designation. “Plaintiff believed that defendant was making a mockery of her and her deeply rooted African-American culture by using her as a public relations stunt,” the suit reads.

Counter claims

Eureka, in its statement of facts to the court, contends that Carter’s employment was terminated for poor performance. All of the properties under Carter’s management, including Greenbelt, failed HUD’s Real Estate Assessment Center inspections in 2021. 

While Carter says the properties were already in poor condition when she was hired, Eureka asserts that the properties’ failure to pass inspection was due to Carter’s mismanagement.

“Ms. Carter asserts that Eureka discriminated against her based on her race when it required her to focus exclusively on Greenbelt, placed her on paid leave and terminated her employment,” Wiegand wrote in her June 3 opinion. “Eureka responds that Ms. Carter cannot make out a prima facie case of race discrimination or retaliation, and even if she could, that she cannot show that Eureka’s legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons for its actions were pretextual… The Court concludes that genuine issues of material fact remain for trial regarding the majority of Ms. Carter’s claims.”

The HUD and code violations at the Greenbelt property have since been corrected, according to a July 2022 report from 13 ABC. 

”Eureka is a minority-owned and operated business and is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for applicants and employees and a workplace free from discrimination and harassment,” Terri Imbarlina Patak, a representative of Eureka, told Multifamily Dive in response to a request for comment. “As such, we intend to vigorously defend this lawsuit.”