Suit Accuses Apartment Owners of Discriminating Against Blacks

The owners of more than 3,000 apartment units, mainly in the San Fernando Valley, have been accused in a class-action lawsuit of discriminating against African Americans and harassing white managers who refused to carry out discriminatory orders.

The suit alleges that the owners and managers of the buildings instructed managers to reject black applicants or to charge them higher rents and security deposits. Some blacks were rented only apartments in the back of the buildings, the suit alleges.

The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by two civil rights law firms and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, names as defendants 14 individuals, a Redondo Beach partnership and a Buena Park management company, which own a series of properties. “Patterns (of discrimination) were so strong,” said Diana Bruno, executive director of the San Fernando Valley Fair Housing Council.

A manager of one complex named in the suit, Village Pointe Apartments in Northridge, disputed the allegations. “Everyone I know in the company has said that discrimination is cause for instant firing,” the manager said.

Lawyers in the case said the suit was prompted in part by the complaints from the former manager at West Summerwinds Apartments in Lancaster that she was forced to quit because she was told to reject black applicants or at least limit the number renting apartments.

Several fair-housing councils also conducted “undercover audits” at the apartments to see if black applicants were treated differently than white applicants, according to the suit, which seeks unspecified damages and a court order prohibiting further discrimination.