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| WA State FAIR HOUSING UPDATE: March 2005 |
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by Jesse Wing at MacDonald Hoague & Bayless A landmark housing discrimination lawsuit ended in January when Federal Judge Frank Burgess signed a consent decree requiring that the Northgate Village Apartments (NVA), located in Lakewood, Washington, and its landlords Grace Li and CIC Corporation change their policies and pay $925,000 to 18 former tenants and applicants who sued them for discrimination. The tenants and applicants claimed NVA discriminated against them because of their race and because they had children. The consent decree also requires CIC Corporation to pay a non-profit agency, the Fair Housing Center of South Puget Sound, to train CIC's employees, conduct compliance checks, and monitor the landlord's conduct for the next five years. In the lawsuit, former employees, tenants, and applicants of Northgate Village Apartments said that NVA's manager referred to African Americans and other non whites as "niggers" and "spics" and gave false information to non white prospective tenants to keep them from renting apartments. They also complained that NVA enforced rules unequally and targeted tenants for eviction based on race and family status, prohibited children from using common areas and told them to play in areas containing broken glass and animal waste. Two NVA employees testified that they were fired because they objected to this discriminatory conduct. NVA and its owners denied these allegations, but agreed to the consent decree and the $925,000 damage award rather than have the case go to the jury trial that was scheduled to start in March. The monetary settlement alone is believed to be the largest in a housing discrimination case ever in Western Washington. The consent decree requires changes in NVA's policies toward future tenants and applicants, as well as those who were involved in the lawsuit. KCOCR Fair Housing Home Page Your comments about this web site Updated: Mar. 25, 2005 King County | DES | OCR | News | Services | Comments | Search Links to external sites do not constitute
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