RENTON, Wash. - A Renton apartment manager, along with the apartment building's owners and property management company, has been charged with violating the fair housing act.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) says an undercover sting caught Rita Lovejoy, manager of the Summerhill Apartments, discriminating against minorities and families with children when testers were sent in to rent an apartment. The sting was requested by King County's Office of Civil Rights.
RELATED: Read the HUD charging documents
According to HUD, Lovejoy treated the testers differently based on their "race, color, national origin and familial status.
HUD says Lovejoy, among other things, wanted a higher rent to African-American and Hispanic testers than for a white tester for the same apartment. HUD says Lovejoy also:
- Gave earlier availability dates and offered apartments with new amenities to white testers.
- Asked Hispanic applicants if they had illegally purchased social security cards.
- Made numerous discriminatory statements to non-white testers, including telling an African-American tester that he was "one of the good ones because you wear your pants up on your buttocks."
HUD's investigators also allege that Lovejoy would instruct her staff to show minority applicants apartments with less desirable amenities, such as worn carpets and older appliances, and to show units that were away from her apartments. They say she would also tell applicants with children that the children could not play on the complex grounds and would have to go to a nearby park.
The HUD charges will be heard by a federal administrative law judge unless someone requests it be heard in federal district court.
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