Pasadena Probing Charge of Housing Project Bias

The Pasadena Board of Directors has launched an investigation into tenants’ allegations of racial discrimination at King’s Villages housing project in northwest Pasadena.

The board on Tuesday ordered city staff members to obtain records belonging to the project owner, Goldrich, Kest & Associates, and managing partner, Thomas Pottmeyer & Co., to determine if racial discrimination has occurred at the low-income housing project.

In addition, the board ordered city staff members to secure records from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which annually inspects the project for compliance under the federal Section 8, low-income rental regulations.

“They promised not to discriminate,” City Director Rick Cole said of the King’s Villages owners. “We’ve been told by people coming down here that there is discrimination. I’d like to get to the bottom of this.”

The complaints come from members of the King’s Villages Tenants Union Organization. De-Vera Joe, the group’s president, claims that since Pottmeyer took over management in 1988, not one black tenant has been admitted to the complex.

Instead, Pottmeyer has filled vacancies at the complex with Latinos who do not speak English, Joe said. These new, non-English-speaking tenants are subjected to higher rents, harassment and intimidation by the management, she claimed.

“The complex has gone almost 50% Hispanic in one year,” Joe said. “That’s what we’re telling the board: They’re discriminating.”

However, Thomas Pottmeyer on Wednesday denied Joe’s allegations, saying that both blacks and Latinos have been admitted to the project under his management. About 25% of the 313-unit project’s tenants are Latino, he said, a change from the past when virtually all of the residents were black. He denied that Latinos pay higher rents or are harassed, saying that he has followed HUD regulations concerning waiting lists and the setting of rents.

“They regularly audit everything we do,” Pottmeyer said of HUD.

Pottmeyer said city officials have not yet contacted him about the investigation. He said his firm will not turn over any records to the city unless he receives HUD permission to do so.

For months, tenant union members have been trying to obtain records in hopes of substantiating their claims. They appealed to the Board of Directors for action after they were refused tenant waiting lists and rental payment information from Pottmeyer, Joe said.

Although housing discrimination complaints are normally investigated and prosecuted under state and federal laws, City Manager Donald McIntyre told the board Tuesday that the city has some authority to investigate King’s Villages.

That is because the city took possession of the project in 1982, after HUD foreclosed on the property. Later that year, the city sold the project to Goldrich, Kest, a Culver City-based company with 10,000 HUD projects in California. Under an agreement between the city and the company, Goldrich, Kest was prohibited from discriminating in renting the units. The agreement also gave the city the right to review various records.