Biden-Harris DOJ Aggressively Goes After Landlords That Use Criminal Background Checks to Screen Renters, Accuses Them of Race Discrimination

The Biden-Harris DOJ is aggressively pursuing landlords that use criminal background checks to screen renters.

“To keep with an Obama era housing rule that prohibits landlords from banning tenants with criminal records, the Biden administration is going after property owners that use background checks to screen perspective renters. Under the civil rights law known as the Fair Housing Act, housing discrimination is prohibited based on race or color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status or disability but Obama’s U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued an order in 2016 adding criminals to the protected class,” Judicial Watch reported.

Federal prosecutors argued in a lawsuit filed this month against the owners and managers of Suburban Heights Apartments in Kinloch, Missouri, that their criminal background checks discriminate against blacks because of racial disparities in incarceration rates.

The owners and managers of Suburban Heights Apartments, a residential property within proximity to UMSL, described itself as a “student village” and implemented criminal background checks to make living in the building safer for young renters.

However, the Biden-Harris DOJ is going after the landlord and accusing them of racial discrimination.

“The lawsuit seeks monetary damages to remedy the harms caused by the defendants’ policy, a civil penalty to vindicate the public interest and a court order barring future discrimination,” the DOJ said.

“It is well documented and known that there are statistical Black-White racial disparities in conviction and incarceration rates,” the DOJ lawsuit says.

“Incarceration data indicates that Black individuals are significantly more likely than White individuals to have the types of convictions covered by Suburban Heights’ Criminal History Ban. This is true nationwide and, to an even greater extent, in St. Louis City and St. Louis County. Black individuals are at least four times, and often more than five times, more likely than White individuals to be incarcerated in prisons, both at any given point in time and over the course of their lifetimes,” the DOJ argued.

“These Black-White statistical disparities in incarceration rates are an appropriate proxy and the best available evidence for the statistical disparities in rates of the types of convictions covered by Suburban Heights’ Criminal History Ban,” the DOJ said.

“Rental property owners and managers that ban tenants with a criminal history risk running afoul of the Fair Housing Act,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

“Policies that perpetuate racial discrimination in the housing market can prove devastating for communities of color. This lawsuit should send a clear message to housing providers that certain criminal history bans on people seeking to put a roof over their heads are not just unfair but unlawful. The Justice Department is committed to enforcing the protections of the Fair Housing Act to prevent housing discrimination on the basis of race and color in all its forms,” Clarke said.

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