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TRENTON
– The Division on Civil Rights announced
today it has issued separate Findings of
Probable Cause against apartment complex
operators accused of housing discrimination
in Burlington County and Essex County. In
both cases, the Respondents are charged
with rejecting would-be tenants because
of their familial status, a violation of
the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination
(LAD).
Named
as Respondent in one Finding of Probable
Cause is Davis Enterprises, manager of the
Allison Apartments, a 536-unit complex located
in Evesham Township, Burlington County.
Named as Respondent in a second, unrelated
Finding of Probable Cause is the RPM Development
Group, a developer of affordable housing
that owns approximately 1,300 apartments
in 21 complexes throughout Essex County.
Both are accused of denying rentals to prospective
tenants in 2009 because, they claimed, the
applicants had too many children to qualify
for the type of units they sought to rent.
“In
both of these cases, the policies and alleged
conduct are troubling,” said Division
on Civil Rights Director Chinh Q. Le. “Rental
policies that place restrictions on the
number of individuals who can live in a
particular apartment must not unreasonably
limit or exclude housing opportunities for
families with children.”
In
the Evesham case, Davis Enterprises is accused
of unlawfully denying housing to married
couple Laurie and James Neary and their
two children, ages five months and 18 months.
The Nearys sought to rent a two-bedroom
apartment at Allison in April 2009, but
a manager there refused them, ostensibly
because their family was too large. As a
matter of policy, the same manager told
Division investigators, a maximum of only
three people are permitted to occupy a two-bedroom
apartment. However, the Finding of Probable
Cause notes that local and state housing
codes do not count children under two as
occupants.
Even
if the children were counted as occupants,
they still could share a bedroom based on
the dimensions of the two-bedroom units
at Allison, and the square-footage of “usable
floor area” required by code, according
to the Finding of Probable Cause.
In
the Essex County case, RPM Development is
accused of unlawfully denying housing to
Robert and Onyinyechi Ubaechu, whose five
children range in age from four-months to
eight-years-old. The Ubaechus applied for
a four-bedroom unit in August 2009 and were
told none were available. The Ubaechus then
applied for a three-bedroom apartment and
were told their family was too large for
such a unit.
However,
Division investigators determined RPM had
three-bedroom units available in Newark,
at a complex known as Springfield Commons,
that would have accommodated the Ubaechus
family while also being in compliance with
the city’s published Occupancy Standards
and Room Size Requirements.
RPM
told investigators its practice of limiting
occupancy to two people per bedroom is consistent
with federal Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) regulations published in a 1998 HUD
statement of policy on enforcement and occupancy
standards. However, the Finding of Probable
Cause notes that the RPM complexes at issue
are not owned or subsidized by HUD, and
that the 1998 HUD statement to which RPM
refers contains guidelines for occupancy,
not regulations. In addition, the HUD statement
makes clear that landlords must also consider
the size of the bedrooms in question, as
well as the applicable local occupancy restrictions.
The
LAD provides that each Respondent found
to have committed a violation is subject
to a penalty of up to $10,000. The LAD also
provides for other remedies, including compensatory
damages and injunctive relief, such as changes
in the employer's policies and management/staff
training.
Now
that the Division has issued Findings of
Probable Cause, the Davis Enterprises and
RPM Development cases will be referred for
a process known as Conciliation. If Conciliation
is not successful, the matters will be referred
for non-jury trials before an Administrative
Law Judge. Once those trials are completed,
the presiding Administrative Law Judges
will issue written Initial Decisions.
Director Le thanked Elizabeth Russian, Manager
of the Division on Civil Rights’ Housing
Investigations Unit, as well as Investigator
Henry Hammond and Investigator Carlos Hernandez
for their work on the Davis Enterprises
and RPM Group cases respectively.
NOTE
(October 20, 2010): While the legal conclusions
in the Ubachu and Neary findings of probable
cause do not have precedential value, the
Division seeks to clarify its statement
on pg 5 of both findings regarding the minimum
required square footage, per person, for
occupancy under the New Jersey Administrative
Code. N.J.A.C. 5:28-1.11 requires a minimum
of 70 square feet in a bedroom for one occupant,
and where more than one person will occupy
a dwelling, the bedroom space must be at
least 50 square feet per occupant, except
that a child under the age of two is not
to be considered an additional occupant.
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