Agent lied to Black potential renters about apartments being unavailable, feds say
A real estate agent lied to Black potential renters about which apartments were available and refused to show them properties he directed white renters to in Mississippi, federal prosecutors say.
“I can’t put you at Pearl Manor. Them old men’ll have a heart attack,” the real estate agent is accused of telling one potential renter, who is a Black woman, court documents state.
Now the company in charge of the apartment complexes, a husband and wife who own several of them and their former rental agent are paying $123,000 to settle the Justice Department’s lawsuit and accusations of racial discrimination, according to an Oct. 17 news release.
This comes after the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center conducted “fair-housing testing … a simulation of a housing transaction” at the complexes in Pearl, a city 5 miles outside of Jackson, to investigate whether potential home-seekers were being illegally discriminated against, the Justice Department says.
In August, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi ruled racial discrimination did take place in violation of the Fair Housing Act, according to the release.
“Housing discrimination has no place in our society and a person’s race should never determine where that person can live,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.
Deshun T. Martin, an attorney representing SSM Properties LLC and apartment complex owners Steven and Sheila Maulding, told McClatchy News on Oct. 18 that his clients entered into a consent decree with the Justice Department because they wanted to get lawsuit resolved and “move on with their lives.”
The former rental agent and manager of the apartment complexes, James Roe, who represented himself in the case, declined a request for comment from McClatchy News on Oct. 18.
The case
From November 2016 to 2017, the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center conducted four tests to determine whether SSM Properties, the Mauldings and Roe were abiding by the Fair Housing Act when showing units at Pearl Manor, Oak Manor and the Townhomes, according to a complaint filed in federal court.
The tests involved Black and white “testers” who posed as prospective apartment renters and met with Roe, according to the Justice Department.
The tests revealed that Black individuals coming to see apartment rental units at Pearl Manor and Oak Manor were only allowed to view Oak Manor units and were treated “differently and less favorably than similarly-situated White individuals,” the complaint states.
The complaint accuses Roe of steering white testers to Pearl Manor, saying they would be “happy” and “fit in” there while directing them away from Oak Manor.
On one occasion, a white tester was told he would “not be happy” at Oak Manor “because Roe himself would not be happy there,” according to the complaint.
When Black testers met with Roe, he was accused of not mentioning Pearl Manor altogether even though there were available apartments at the complex, the complaint says. He was also accused of lying about the availability of other units.
During another instance, Roe told a Black female tester over the phone that a Townhomes unit was available — but things changed when the tester met with him in person, according to the Justice Department.
Roe told the tester “‘you ain’t nothing what I expected,’ and told her the unit had been rented,” the complaint states.
However, three hours later, Roe told a white tester that one was available, according to the complaint.
Roe is also accused of discriminating against Black potential renters by asking them more questions about their finances and only showing them apartments when their rental applications were approved, according to the Justice Department. Meanwhile, prosecutors say Roe showed white potential renters apartments without their applications being approved.
“It is clear that fair housing testing remains an important tool in identifying those who violate the Fair Housing Act,” Demetria L. McCain, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s principal deputy assistant secretary for the office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, said in a statement.
The Fair Housing Act was enacted in 1968 and makes discrimination against home-seekers illegal.
After the lawsuit’s consent decree is approved in federal court, the defendants will pay $110,000 to cover monetary damages and four Black testers’ attorney fees, as well as civil penalties, according to the release.
As part of the consent decree, Roe is banned from working as a rental agent for any residential rental properties, the release says.
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