Editor’s note: This story and the associated court documents include graphic details of alleged racial and sexual threats.
Highlands, Colorado-based multifamily REIT UDR has agreed to pay $50,000 to the District of Columbia and make a number of changes to its business practices in order to settle claims related to its handling of a tenant racial and sexual harassment case at one of its properties, according to the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia.
The OAG sued UDR in January 2024 in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, alleging that the property manager had created a hostile environment for Black women by failing to prevent race- and sex-based harassment, including physical violence, from a tenant at the Waterside Towers Apartments in Southwest Washington, D.C. In doing so, the OAG alleges that UDR violated the Fair Housing Act and the DC Human Rights Act.
Between April and August 2020, two Black female tenants at the property — pseudonymized in court documents as Ms. M and Ms. G — reported multiple incidents of harassment from a white male tenant to the property’s management, according to the lawsuit. These included violence, physical intimidation and racial and sexual slurs.
One of these incidents, in which the harassing tenant accelerated his car toward Ms. G in a crosswalk, yelled slurs at her and spit in her face at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, led to his arrest in August 2020, based on a complaint to police. The tenant was placed under a Stay Away/No Contact Order for Ms. G, which he violated shortly after, according to court documents.
Despite multiple reports and at least one incident alleged to have taken place in front of a UDR employee, the firm did not take any action against the harassing tenant or protect the harassed tenants, according to court documents. Requests from Ms. G to be moved to a different equivalent apartment in order to escape the harassment were not fulfilled.
The harassing tenant voluntarily moved out of the building in October 2020, according to court documents. He was found guilty of bias-related assault in connection with his harassment of Ms. G in February 2023.
Both Ms. M and Ms. G filed complaints with the District of Columbia Office of Human Rights in February 2021, alleging that UDR, as their housing provider, had subjected them to this harassment by failing to take action against it, according to court documents. The case was ultimately referred to the OAG, which was unable to resolve the complaints outside of court.
UDR has denied that it has violated any applicable laws, according to the court settlement. The company does acknowledge that discrimination and harassment on the basis of protected traits is unlawful, and it has adopted new policies addressing tenant-on-tenant harassment. The company did not respond to a request for comment from Multifamily Dive.
On top of the $50,000 fine, UDR must provide mandatory fair housing training to all of its District of Columbia employees for at least three years, maintain its newly adopted harassment policies and promptly resolve future harassment or discrimination claims regarding Waterside Towers. The property manager will also provide an undisclosed amount of monetary compensation to the two harassed tenants in a separate agreement.
