Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana and Marckus Williams, an Indianapolis resident, have filed a lawsuit against Orange County, California-based Tricon Residential Inc. alleging that the company’s blanket ban on renting to those with prior felony convictions and eviction filings constitutes racial discrimination.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday is U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, seeks class-action status.
Tricon owns 40,000 single-family homes across 10 states and is one of the largest providers of single-family rental homes in the country, according to the Fair Housing Center. The company lists dozens of homes for rent throughout central Indiana on its web site.
Williams applied to live in a home in Indianapolis with his wife and young child. He was denied, with documents from Tricon citing three prior felony drug convictions on Williams’ record. Two of the listed convictions had been expunged, while the the other cited by Tricon was a record of Williams’ participation in a court-ordered program rather than a conviction.
Williams, one of two neighborhood leaders who were initially tapped to run a food-desert-filling grocery store, represents the class of Black renters who are automatically excluded from renting the properties Tricon owns across the country due to prior convictions. The Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana found that the company has screened for criminal records over the past seven years.
The proportion of Black people disqualified by Tricon’s blanket ban on renting to people with any felony convictions within the past seven years is 5.32 times greater than the proportion of white people disqualified, according to the Fair Housing Center.
Additionally, the Fair Housing Center alleges that the automatic disqualification of renters with an eviction filing within the past two years—including evictions who were expunged or ultimately not carried out—is racially discriminatory. That policy has an impact especially on Black women, the complaint alleges.
“Black female renters without children are threatened with eviction at about 6.8 times the rate at which white female renters without children are threatened with eviction,” attorneys for the Fair Housing Center wrote. “Disparities persist for Black women with children, who are threatened with eviction at about 4.3 times the rate of white female renters with children.”
Attorneys write that for both policies, simply looking at renter applications and evaluating each one individually would satisfy discrimination concerns.
In an email to IBJ, Tricon Residential called the lawsuit “baseless.”
“Tricon Residential adheres to all fair housing laws and believes the allegations in this suit are baseless,” the company said. “We review resident applications fairly, ethically, and objectively, employing a ‘blind’ screening process not dissimilar from procedures used to review applicants for mortgages, apartment rentals, car leases, and credit cards. Tricon also maintains fairness by welcoming qualified applications on a first-come, first-serve basis, ensuring that no prospective residents get preferential treatment.”
Washington, D.C.-based civil rights law firm Relman Colfax is representing the plaintiffs in the case. Ellora Israni, an attorney with the firm, said in a press release that the class action lawsuit is “about holding housing providers accountable to ensure everyone has equal access to housing regardless of their background. For those affected, this is not just a theoretical issue—it’s about real lives, families and communities marginalized through no fault of their own.”
The suit seeks to prevent Tricon Residential from continuing to implement these policies, along with damages and attorney’s fees for the plaintiffs.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
“…it’s about real lives, families and communities marginalized through no fault of their own.”
Um, How do you get a felony without any fault?
Likewise, how does a person have eviction, after eviction, after eviction…..wouldn’t that be that they just don’t adhere to the terms of the lease they signed, which always clearly states terms, and what happens if a tenant is in default. The courts now mark a file as dismissed if the court date roles around and the tenant has moved out of the property. That does not negate the fact that they were in default, and most defaults are non payment of rent, or clearly trashing the property. The Landlord filed for a reason, dismissed or not.
I don’t see why Landlords are always the bad guys……..start teaching tenants how to abide by their leases, and not trash property and maybe we would have less of this problem. Tricon is like 90% of Landlords…..they have criteria on qualifying for a property under their management. Criminal felony history (especially for drugs or weapons), and eviction history are always at the top of the criteria list. Nothing new there.
Maybe fair housing of Central Indiana wants to step up and guarantee the rent or cover any damages that may occur because these tenants that they’re wanting the landlords to take. Otherwise they’re using Fair criteria and if someone has three felony convictions I would say they’re definitely going to have a fourth fifth and 6th eventually.
What David, Karen, & Rhea are missing is that Marckus’ two felony convictions were expunged. The third ‘felony’ on his record isn’t actually a felony at all; it’s a treatment program mandated by a court back when he was having drug issues. MyCase shows that this all happened back in 2006 & that he’s stayed out of trouble since.
Being denied housing for expunged criminal records is not right.
Further, the eviction part of the lawsuit seems to have nothing to Marckus. It doesn’t look like he’s been through the evictions process once, at least not through Indiana courts. This claim has something to do with getting class action cert.
Co-sign for him Robert. Show us how it’s done
This is a new level of Democrat stupidity. Not wanting to rent to criminals who don’t pay their bills is now RACIST!!
As always, IBJ, let’s hear from the flock of Liberals you regularly promote and have them explain this.
Better yet, since there is no financial risk, just have Ed Delaney, Kip Tew, and Saint Andre simply co sign. Problem solved