Apartments’ Management Accused of Discrimination : Housing: Agency says sting operation in Fullerton uncovered bias against a black applicant.

The Fair Housing Council of Orange County announced Friday that it has filed a federal suit charging the manager and owner of a local apartment complex with discriminating against a black housing applicant.

The housing council said its action came after a sting operation in which it sent a black man and a white man to the building posing as applicants. The suit contends that the black applicant was told the complex had no openings, while minutes later, the white applicant was told several units were available.

The civil lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana against officials from Continental Apartments at 400 N. Acacia Ave.

On Friday, however, an official of the Continental Apartments contended that the racial bias accusation was baseless.

“I’m shocked,” said Patricia Day-Holman, resident manager of the apartments. “I haven’t done anything like that (act of alleged racial discrimination). We have a lot of black people who live here--a lot of Mexicans, and a lot of Orientals. I don’t know what (the lawsuit) is talking about.

“The person who lives next door to me is black. . . . The only thing I require is that a person fill out a credit report. I show them an apartment, if one is available to see. Sometime if one is not immediately ready to see, I tell them to come back later. We don’t discriminate. We have all kinds of nationalities here.”

But David T. Quezada, executive director of the Fair Housing Council of Orange County, said the legal issue is not whether the Continental Apartments are integrated. Instead, he said the council contends that there is “a pattern and practice and method of operation” by Continental that racially discriminates against black applicants.

“There might be many more (blacks) in those apartments if there were not a pattern of discrimination,” Quezada said.

The suit names Day-Holman, owner Jerry Berez and the apartment complex as defendants. Berez could not be reached for comment.

The suit seeks a court order to prohibit the apartment complex “from engaging in the discriminatory housing practices.” The suit also asks for an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages and for attorneys’ fees and costs.

The Fair Housing Council filed the suit on behalf of Eugene Mathis II of Fullerton, an African-American man who says he applied to Day-Holman for an apartment at the Continental complex last October. The suit says Day-Holman told Mathis that nothing was available for rent.

Mathis contacted the Fair Housing Council, and its officials set up the test for racial discrimination. The lawsuit says that on Nov. 4, the council sent a white man and a black man to the Continental Apartments within 18 minutes of each other to apply for an apartment. Both applied to Day-Holman, the suit says.

According to the suit, Day-Holman told the black applicant, Amos Moyo, at 11:22 a.m. on Nov. 4 that there were no vacant apartment units.

But the suit charges that at 11:40 a.m., Day-Holman told Steve Cipolla, the white fair-housing tester, “that there were vacant apartment units immediately available for rent.”

In a telephone interview Friday, Day-Holman said she did not remember either alleged incident.

The Fair Housing Council of Orange County is an independent, nonprofit organization based in Santa Ana. It has contracts with city, county and federal governments to serve as the fair-housing watchdog.

Quezada said Friday that although racial bias claims are frequently made to the council, it seldom files lawsuits. He said the council only filed two such lawsuits last year. Most disputes are settled out of court, Quezada said.

Quezada said that the council had a 52% increase in racial discrimination claims filed last year, compared to the previous year. He said a greater awareness by members of the public of their rights is a major reason for the increased number of claims filed.