On November 23, 2009, the United States filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division under the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §§3601 against the owner of a single-family house in Orland Park, Illinois that was made available for rent. The plaintiff claimed that the defendant refused to rent the Orland Park house to African-American tenants.

The plaintiff presented the results of testing conducted by the local fair housing center that indicated that the defendant was willing to rent to white persons, but that when a black person or, as in this case, a mixed-race couple applied, suddenly the house was not available. The testers recorded conversations with the owner, including one in which the owner confirmed the house was available, then asked the caller if her husband was black. The owner told the tester that "blacks had been trying to break the color barrier", that they "did not belong in the neighborhood" and that "since she was white" he would offer her the house at a discount.

The individuals denied housing also filed a lawsuit and the cases were consolidated. The plaintiffs sought declaratory, injunctive, and monetary relief.

On January 19, 2011, the Court (Judge Young B. Kim) approved a consent Decree agreed to by the parties. The defendant acknowleged liability and, in addition to general prohibitions aginst race discrimination, agreed not to engage personally in the renting, management , or showing of any dwelling, that rather, a third party approved by the United States would perform those services.

The consent decree also required the defendant to create and distribute a non-discrimination policy, pay $30,000 in monetary relief, and pay $5,000 as a civil penalty to the United States. The order was set to last a period of five years from the date of its entry. These five years passed with no further activity, and the case is now presumably closed.

Denise Heberle - 08/02/2012
Asma Husain - 02/06/2016


compress summary