TRENTON – Attorney General Peter C. Harvey and Division on Civil Rights Director J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo announced today that the State has entered into separate settlement agreements that resolve allegations of housing discrimination against four landlords in New Jersey – including one accused of denying housing on the basis of race, and three accused of denying housing to applicants who intended to use federal rental assistance.

According to Harvey, each of the four individual settlement agreements provides for State monitoring of the Respondent’s rental practices, requires that each Respondent make housing-discrimination-related training mandatory for employees, and that each Respondent reimburse the State for administrative costs. Each landlord had been charged with violating New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (LAD), which prohibits discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations.

“These suits and settlement agreements stand for the principle that denying people housing, or attempting to manipulate their choice of housing markets by ‘steering’ them to specific locations on the basis of race or ethnicity, will not be ignored or tolerated,” said Harvey. ”Throughout the State, landlords, real estate agents, apartment managers and the owners of housing complexes must understand that we are serious about identifying and, where appropriate, prosecuting this kind of conduct.”

In one of the four cases announced today, the owners of the 125-unit Highgate Apartments in Ewing Township, Mercer County, have settled a complaint alleging that its on-site management advised minorities who asked that no dwellings were available for rent while encouraging whites who asked to inspect and occupy apartments immediately. The owner, Eastgate-Highgate Associates, has agreed to pay the State $25,000 in investigative and monitoring costs. The complex is located at 1 Highgate Drive, Ewing.

The other settlements resolve allegations of discrimination on the basis of a person’s lawful source of income -- specifically, Section 8 federal housing assistance vouchers. The Respondents participating in those three settlements are: Clinton Manor Associates, LLC, owner of Clinton Manor, located at 101 W. Main St., Clinton, Hunterdon County; 599 Broadway Management, owner of Broadway Towers, located at 599 Broadway, Paterson, Passaic County; and Garden State Realty, located at 110 Washington St., East Orange, Essex County.

All of the settlement agreements require Respondents to pay administrative costs, undergo State monitoring of their rental practices, and sponsor training for employees on the LAD in general, and housing discrimination in particular.

Director Vespa-Papaleo noted that in each of the four housing cases that were ultimately resolved, the State deployed investigators and other staff as undercover “testers” to determine if managers and leasing agents were engaging in discriminatory practices.

“The Division recently established a specialized Housing Investigations Unit to launch a full-scale attack on unlawful housing discrimination that combines proactive enforcement with outreach and public education,” said Vespa-Papaleo. “Our focus has always been on preventing future housing discrimination, and this unit has been charged with implementing strategies to support that goal. In addition to contributing to today’s settlements, the unit has been instrumental in creation of the Division’s toll-free housing “hotline” (1-866-405-3050), and promoting public awareness initiatives that target housing advocates, providers, and New Jersey’s real estate industry.”

The Division initially filed four Section 8 discrimination complaints in June 2003, including one against Atlantic Coast Realty, Inc., of Brigantine, Atlantic County. The settlement with Atlantic Coast Realty was similar to the three Section 8 cases announced today.

The Section 8 cases represented the first complaints ever filed by the State under a new law -- written by the Attorney General’s Office and enacted in September 2002 -- making discrimination based on lawful source of income illegal, including Section 8 assistance. Under the Section 8 program, tenants who receive rental assistance vouchers pay only a portion of their monthly rent. The remainder is paid directly to the landlord by a local public housing authority under contract to the federal Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD).

According to Director Vespa-Papaleo, the Section 8 and Highgate settlements underscore the Division’s approach to stopping housing discrimination by re-directing resources and settlement proceeds toward education and training.

Respondents in the four settled cases have also agreed to do the following:

• display the Division’s housing discrimination posters in places easily visible to current and prospective tenants
• submit to monitoring of their rental policies and practices by the State for a period of one to two years;
• pay $82,500 (collectively) in administrative costs to the Division

Under terms of the individual settlement agreements, the respondents denied all allegations of discrimination and admitted to no wrongdoing.

The Division on Civil Rights is responsible for enforcement of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and the Family Leave Act. Specifically, the Division investigates allegations of discrimination in employment, housing, places of public accommodation and credit. The Division has six offices located in Trenton, Newark, Atlantic City, Paterson, Camden and Jersey City. Further information about the Division is available on its Web site: www.NJCivilRights.org.

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