On November 10, 2010, the United States brought a lawsuit under the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §3601-3631, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, against the manager/supervisor and owners of an apartment complex. The Plaintiff sued on behalf of two female residents of the apartment complex, claiming that the manager/maintenance supervisor subjected female tenants to discrimination on the basis of sex, including unwelcome sexual harassment. The Plaintiff sought injunctive, declaratory, monetary damages, and civil penalties.

Specifically, Plaintiff claims the Defendants made housing unavailable to female tenants because its manager engaged in a pattern and practice of offering quid pro quo agreements to provide services in exchange for sex, pervasive unwanted sexual advances, comments, and gestures, and other forms of sexual harassment, all of which interfered with the women's use and enjoyment of their tenancies.

On September 22, 2011, the Court (Judge Linda R. Reade) approved a five-year Consent Decree agreed to by the parties. By that time, none of the Defendants was engaged in the residential rental business. The Consent Decree required that should the owners ever re-enter the business, they were prohibited in general from discriminating against tenants on the basis of sex and specifically required to adopt and distribute a Nondiscrimination Policy to be approved by the Justice Department, to train its employees in the policy, to develop a complaint procedure an retain all document pertaining to any complaints. The manager/maintenance supervisor was forever prohibited from having any involvement whatsoever in the management, rental, or maintenance of any dwelling. Defendants agreed to pay $80,000 in compensatory damages to aggrieved persons identified by Plaintiff and $15,000 in civil penalties.

The case terminated on September 23, 2011, with the Consent Decree to remain in effect until September 2016.

Stacey McClurkin - 12/24/2011


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