The Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) is taking a hardline stance against landlords who employ criminal background checks to vet potential tenants, a move that aligns with an Obama-era housing regulation.
This rule, enacted under the Obama administration, forbids landlords from excluding tenants with criminal records, effectively adding criminals to the list of protected classes under the Fair Housing Act.
According to Gateway Pundit, the Fair Housing Act, a civil rights law, prohibits housing discrimination based on race or color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability. However, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), under Obama's administration, issued an order in 2016 that extended these protections to individuals with criminal records.
This month, federal prosecutors filed a lawsuit against the owners and managers of Suburban Heights Apartments in Kinloch, Missouri. The lawsuit alleges that the property's criminal background checks discriminate against black individuals due to racial disparities in incarceration rates. Suburban Heights Apartments, located near the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL), markets itself as a "student village" and uses criminal background checks to enhance the safety of its young tenants.
The Biden-Harris DOJ, however, is accusing the landlords of racial discrimination. The DOJ's lawsuit seeks monetary damages to remedy the alleged harms caused by the defendants' policy, a civil penalty to vindicate the public interest, and a court order barring future discrimination.
The DOJ lawsuit states, It is well documented and known that there are statistical Black-White racial disparities in conviction and incarceration rates. It further argues that black individuals are significantly more likely than white individuals to have the types of convictions covered by Suburban Heights' Criminal History Ban, both nationwide and particularly in St. Louis City and St. Louis County.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division warned, Rental property owners and managers that ban tenants with a criminal history risk running afoul of the Fair Housing Act. She added that policies perpetuating racial discrimination in the housing market can be devastating for communities of color, and that the lawsuit should serve as a clear message to housing providers that certain criminal history bans are not just unfair, but unlawful.
Clarke emphasized the DOJ's commitment to enforcing the protections of the Fair Housing Act to prevent housing discrimination on the basis of race and color in all its forms. This stance, however, raises questions about the balance between ensuring fair housing and allowing landlords to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety and security of their properties and tenants.
Login