The Biden-Harris DOJ is aggressively pursuing landlords that use prison background checks to display renters.
“To maintain with an Obama period housing rule that prohibits landlords from banning tenants with prison information, the Biden administration goes after property house owners that use background checks to display perspective renters. Below the civil rights regulation often known as the Honest Housing Act, housing discrimination is prohibited primarily based on race or shade, faith, intercourse, nationwide origin, familial standing or incapacity however Obama’s U.S. Division of Housing and City Growth (HUD) issued an order in 2016 including criminals to the protected class,” Judicial Watch reported.
Federal prosecutors argued in a lawsuit filed this month towards the house owners and managers of Suburban Heights Residences in Kinloch, Missouri, that their prison background checks discriminate towards blacks due to racial disparities in incarceration charges.
The house owners and managers of Suburban Heights Residences, a residential property inside proximity to UMSL, described itself as a “scholar village” and carried out prison background checks to make residing within the constructing safer for younger renters.
Nonetheless, the Biden-Harris DOJ goes after the owner and accusing them of racial discrimination.
“The lawsuit seeks financial damages to treatment the harms brought on by the defendants’ coverage, a civil penalty to vindicate the general public curiosity and a courtroom order barring future discrimination,” the DOJ stated.
“It’s nicely documented and recognized that there are statistical Black-White racial disparities in conviction and incarceration charges,” the DOJ lawsuit says.
“Incarceration knowledge signifies that Black people are considerably extra doubtless than White people to have the kinds of convictions coated by Suburban Heights’ Legal Historical past Ban. That is true nationwide and, to a fair better extent, in St. Louis Metropolis and St. Louis County. Black people are at the very least 4 instances, and sometimes greater than 5 instances, extra doubtless than White people to be incarcerated in prisons, each at any given cut-off date and over the course of their lifetimes,” the DOJ argued.
“These Black-White statistical disparities in incarceration charges are an applicable proxy and one of the best out there proof for the statistical disparities in charges of the kinds of convictions coated by Suburban Heights’ Legal Historical past Ban,” the DOJ stated.
“Rental property house owners and managers that ban tenants with a prison historical past danger working afoul of the Honest Housing Act,” stated Assistant Legal professional Normal Kristen Clarke of the Justice Division’s Civil Rights Division.
“Insurance policies that perpetuate racial discrimination within the housing market can show devastating for communities of shade. This lawsuit ought to ship a transparent message to housing suppliers that sure prison historical past bans on individuals looking for to place a roof over their heads aren’t simply unfair however illegal. The Justice Division is dedicated to imposing the protections of the Honest Housing Act to stop housing discrimination on the idea of race and shade in all its kinds,” Clarke stated.
