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Washington State FAIR HOUSING UPDATE |
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By Florrie Brassier, former Executive Director, NWFHA In June 2000, Northwest Fair Housing Alliance (NWFHA) staff met for the first time with a group of Russian tenants from the Westfall Village Apartments, a multifamily housing complex owned by the Spokane Housing Authority and managed by Bowen Property Management. One of the tenants, Natayla Prach, had worked part-time as an assistant manager at the complex. She alleged that the on-site manager, Kerrey Lemons, was manipulating the waiting list at the complex by seeking cash payments from Russian applicants and tenants, in return for preferential treatment in the assignment of new units or transfer from one unit to another. Ms. Prach stated that these requests for cash payments were only directed at Russian applicants or tenants. She and others alleged that payments of varying amounts had been made to Ms. Lemons, who was supported in these efforts by her husband, John Kerrey. When Ms. Prach informed Ms. Lemons' supervisor at Bowen Property Management of this practice, she was fired and immediately threatened with eviction from her apartment at the complex. In addition, when the tenants tried to get their money back, Ms. Lemons contacted the Spokane Police Department and alleged that Ms. Prach and others were trying to extort money from the manager. Ms. Lemons also contacted her sister, Janelle Valov, who was employed with the U. S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). She then spoke with INS Agent Nick Whitney, who accompanied Spokane County Detective Richard Losh when he came to question Ms. Prach and others. NWFHA assisted Ms. Prach and others in filing complaints with HUD and filed its own organizational complaint against the Spokane Housing Authority, Bowen Property Management, John and Kerrey Lemons, and John Ballas, the Bowen manager who had fired Ms. Prach. The other complaints were unusual in that the Russian applicants and tenants had been targeted to pay money to Ms. Lemons, but they also received preferential treatment in the assignment of units to applicants. NWFHA staff tried to locate others who might have applied at Westfall during this period and experienced unfair delays due to Ms. Lemons' illegal manipulation of the waiting list. Unfortunately, the only applicant we were able to locate ultimately refused to become involved and did not wish to file his own complaint, even though it was clear his application for housing had been repeatedly delayed by Ms. Lemons' actions. HUD completed an extensive investigation and issued reasonable cause findings, and the Spokane Housing Authority settled with the parties in 2004. The administrative process was, however, overshadowed by the criminal charges brought against Ms. Prach and others who had supported her, including Ivan Kriger who served as a translator for her and the other tenants in their early meetings with NWFHA. Fear of deportation motivated their ultimate decision to plead guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges as a result of Ms. Lemons' allegations of extortion and other serious charges, none of which were ever proven. As a result of his arrest, Ivan Kriger advises that he went bankrupt and lost both his job with Spokane Public Schools and financing for his construction business. In March 2007, a jury found in favor of Ms. Prach, Mr. Kriger and two other plaintiffs, ruling that Bowen Property Management and John and Kerrey Lemons had violated the plaintiffs' civil rights by "coercing, intimidating, threatening or interfering" with them because of their having "aided or assisted others in the exercise of enjoyment of their housing rights under Section 3604 of the federal Fair Housing Act." The jury awarded $120,000 in damages. This ruling concluded a long and difficult period for these individuals and their families in a case that clearly illustrates the special challenges immigrants may experience in seeking their right to equal housing opportunity. OCR Fair Housing Home Page | Your comments about this Web page Updated: July 9. 2007 King County | DES | OCR | News | Services | Search Links to external sites do not constitute
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