Overview
Cohen Milstein and Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs represent the Equal Rights Center (ERC), a Washington, D.C. civil rights and fair housing organization, in bringing a fair housing discrimination lawsuit against Jefferson Apartment Group (JAG) and JAG Management Company, the companies behind several upscale residential properties throughout the District.
Investigations conducted by ERC found that JAG imposes numerous unlawful requirements on prospective renters, including minimum income requirements for voucher holders and overly broad eviction records and criminal background screenings.
The lawsuit alleges that JAG and four JAG-managed properties named J. Coopers Row, Jefferson MarketPlace, J Linea, and Pinnacle in or near D.C.’s Shaw, NoMa, and Navy Yard neighborhoods, engage in widespread housing practices that unlawfully discriminate against prospective renters on the basis of source of income, eviction records, and criminal history, and impose illegal fees or deposits. The lawsuit alleges that these policies and/or practices violate the D.C. Human Rights Act, the D.C. Fair Criminal Record Screening for Housing Act of 2016, the D.C. Rental Housing Act, the Security Deposit Act, and the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act.
Case Background
The District of Columbia is experiencing a dire housing crisis for low-income tenants. Market-rate housing is out of reach, and there are not enough affordable units to keep up with demand. Twenty-seven percent of renters are extremely low-income, and there is a shortage of nearly 38,000 affordable and available rental homes for these renters. Many native Washingtonians—who are predominantly Black—have been pushed into neighborhoods far from basic necessities like grocery stores, public transportation, and well-resourced schools, or have been pushed out of D.C. altogether.
Unlawful discrimination on the basis of source of income (i.e., using government-backed vouchers to pay for housing), eviction records, and stale criminal records exacerbates these problems for many low-income tenants.
After extensive investigations conducted by ERC and in open defiance of D.C. fair housing, tenant screening, and consumer protection laws, the complaint claims that the defendants implemented policies and/or practices that unlawfully discriminate against rental housing applicants using housing vouchers, applicants with eviction records, and/or applicants with criminal records. The defendants have used these discriminatory policies and/or practices at apartment buildings owned, operated, and/or managed by Jefferson Apartment Group and/or JAG Management Company throughout the District.