TRENTON – Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and the Division on Civil Rights (DCR) Sept. 9 announced a comprehensive initiative combating housing discrimination against those who seek to pay rent with federal, state, or local rental assistance, such as Section 8 housing choice vouchers, the State Rental Assistance Program (SRAP), Temporary Rental Assistance (TRA), or the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program (CVERAP).
According to a release, dubbed “Project HOME” (Housing Opportunity Made Equal), the initiative is a combination of enforcement, prevention, and public awareness efforts, and reflects New Jersey’s national leadership and innovation in promoting fair housing and combating discrimination through the state’s Law Against Discrimination (LAD).
The announcement includes:
- Approximately 100 enforcement actions against New Jersey landlords for LAD violations
- Voluntary compliance agreements with New-Jersey-based companies to end their discriminatory practices
- Collaborations with various real estate listing companies – including Zillow, CoStar, and ApartmentSmart.com – to introduce new anti-discrimination software
- A new “Model Fair Housing Policy” issued by DCR to help landlords comply with the LAD
Under the LAD, landlords cannot refuse to rent to potential tenants or discourage them from renting because they receive government rental assistance. A landlord’s desire to avoid the “paperwork” or required inspections associated with a public subsidy is not an excuse for such discrimination.
It is also unlawful for a housing provider to advertise a property in any way that discriminates against prospective tenants based on their source of lawful income. Common examples of such unlawful advertising include: “This property not approved for Section 8;” “No SRAP applicants,” and “Sorry, TRA not accepted.”
The initiative announced was prompted by the discovery that many online advertisements for rental housing in New Jersey – across a broad range of online platforms – contained such unlawful statements.
“In 2018, we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the federal Fair Housing Act, which made it illegal to discriminate in housing based on race, sex, religion, familial or disability status, or national origin,” stated Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, who serves as commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs. “New Jersey’s fair housing laws go further by protecting from discrimination against residents who seek to pay their rent with assistance from the state. However, housing discrimination remains a problem today.”
Lt. Governor Oliver added: “Our administration is committed to ending the discriminatory housing market tactics that are still being used. We are demonstrating this commitment through this year-long initiative to end advertisements that discriminate against tenants based on their sources of lawful income. We won’t stop until they stop and all New Jerseyans are able to find a safe, affordable place to call home free from discrimination.”
“This is a vital initiative, particularly during these difficult times. People’s homes are their safe havens, and otherwise-qualified families who rely on public assistance to pay their rent deserve better than to be denied available housing due to bias-driven stereotypes,” stated Attorney General Grewal. “Landlords, property sellers, and real estate professionals should not advertise in a way that discourages or outright rejects housing seekers paying with help from the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program, with Section 8 housing choice vouchers, or any other valid public housing assistance.”
“When a person who is able to get a housing voucher is turned away by a landlord who holds stereotypes about people who receive government rental assistance or who thinks they can ‘choose’ not to participate in the program, it can lead to homelessness. This disproportionately harms people of color and people with disabilities,” stated DCR Director Rachel Wainer Apter. “Although this type of discrimination has been illegal in New Jersey for nearly twenty years, our investigation found the law was regularly flouted. These actions should send a message to all housing providers that we will not accept discrimination against people who rely on government rental assistance.”
Enforcing the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination
DCR has resolved through settlement agreements many of the approximately 100 notices of violation that it issued against housing providers who posted online advertisements that discriminated on the basis of potential tenants’ sources of lawful income. Companies and individuals with recurring posts agreed to make monetary payments in lieu of penalties of up to $15,000, to refrain from posting unlawful advertisements in the future, and to adopt measures to guarantee future compliance.
Among others, DCR has reached Assurances of Voluntary Compliance (AVCs) with Iridium Realty Group LLC, an apartment rental service that serves Essex, Hudson, Union, and Morris counties; ERA Young Real Estate, a real estate company based in Gloucester County; and Slatehouse Group Property Management, a property management company specializing in tenant placement and management services. DCR identified a combined 59 discriminatory advertisements from these companies on websites including Craigslist, Zillow, and Bright MLS.
DCR also reached an AVC with Tenant Turner Inc., a software development company offering available real estate for rent, which requires the company to make critical changes to its website; create a new process for screening and flagging discriminatory advertisements; educate its users and employees on fair housing; and make a payment in lieu of penalty of $2,500.
Collaboration with Companies, Other Partners to Prevent Discrimination
DCR has also collaborated with online real estate and rental platforms, New Jersey-based trade associations, and other partners, to stop source of income discrimination. The collaborations are reflected in Statements of Collaboration and Memoranda of Understanding executed by DCR and its partners. These include:
- Zillow Group, Inc. (Zillow), a real estate and rental marketplace that includes Zillow.com, Trulia, Hotpads, StreetEasy, and Naked Apartments, has been working with DCR to update its content-filtering terms to more comprehensively detect and remove unlawful advertisements that discriminate on the basis of source of lawful income. Zillow has also worked with DCR to update its website to incorporate information about discrimination based on source of lawful income, to deliver ads informing Zillow users of their fair housing rights, and to otherwise share information about discrimination based on source of lawful income. DCR and Zillow are also collaborating on fair housing education for Zillow users and employees.
- Apartments.com will work to educate those seeking to post rental housing advertisements on its platform about New Jersey’s fair housing laws and will partner with DCR to enhancing its content filtering terms. Apartments.com is a leading provider of digital residential rental solutions that is owned and operated by CoStar Group. The Apartments.com network of sites includes Apartments.com, ForRent.com, ApartmentFinder.com, ApartmentHomeLiving.com, Apartamentos.com, WestsideRentals.com and others.
- ApartmentSmart.com, which helps prospective renters find affordable housing on the internet through its website AffordableHousingOnline.com and has been a vocal opponent of discrimination against Section 8 tenants, has updated its website to ensure that New Jersey housing providers and prospective tenants do not erroneously believe they can legally refuse housing assistance vouchers. ApartmentSmart is also working with DCR to educate housing advertisers, prospective tenants, and its employees on the fair housing protections in the LAD.
- The New Jersey Apartment Association (NJAA), a statewide real estate organization representing the multi-family rental housing industry, is updating its website to include more specific information on fair housing in New Jersey, including the prohibition against discrimination based on source of lawful income. NJAA and DCR are also collaborating on fair housing content for NJAA’s members, in the form of magazine articles, newsletters, and/or webinars.
- Bright MLS, a multiple listing service for real estate professionals in the Mid-Atlantic region, including nine New Jersey counties, removed checkboxes from its listing forms and electronic database that previously allowed real estate agents to indicate whether the property owner accepted Section 8 vouchers. Bright MLS is also working with DCR to modify its compliance processes for its electronic database and to educate its employees and users on the LAD’s protections.
- NEXUS Association of REALTORS® (NEXUS) is a real estate trade organization comprised of more than 5,000 REALTORS® primarily in Burlington, Camden, and Ocean counties. NEXUS will collaborate with DCR on initiatives to educate and train its members and employees on the LAD and the prohibition on source of lawful income discrimination in New Jersey.
- The State of New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA) Housing Resource Center is a free, online searchable registry of affordable and accessible housing units in New Jersey. In consultation with DCR, NJHMFA added a disclaimer to the Housing Resource Center to inform housing providers and renters that discrimination based on source of lawful income is prohibited under the LAD. In addition, NJHMFA added fair housing resources to its own website.
Educating the Public about Source-of-Lawful-Income Discrimination
Attorney General Grewal and DCR also are taking action to inform tenants of their rights and landlords of their obligations under the LAD.
As part of the initiative, the Attorney General’s Office will be releasing a series of videos from officials and advocates discussing fair housing and source-of-income discrimination. The first video was released today.
In addition, DCR is issuing an updated Model Fair Housing Policy which housing providers can use to create their own LAD-compliant fair housing policies. In addition, DCR is releasing an updated fair housing letter to property owners which licensed brokers and salespeople are required to provide to all property owners who list property with them. These new policy documents include new language highlighting the LAD’s prohibitions on source of lawful income discrimination, bias-based harassment in housing, and discrimination on the basis of disability and familial status.
The updated documents also explain that blanket policies making all individuals with a prior arrest or criminal conviction ineligible for housing violate fair housing laws, because they have a disproportionate impact based on race and national origin, and are not supported by a legitimate business necessity. Housing providers also may not use criminal history as a pretext for intentionally discriminating based on race or national origin (for example, by applying criminal-record-based restrictions against Black housing applicants, but not white housing applicants).
In a related action, Attorney General Grewal and DCR Director Wainer Apter will host a virtual Town Hall Meeting on September 17 at 12:30 p.m. focused on housing discrimination. The Town Hall meeting will center on lawful-source-of-income discrimination and other forms of housing discrimination and how to prevent them.
Anyone interested in learning more about their rights under the LAD can review the fact sheets on DCR’s website, including a fact sheet on source-of-lawful-income discrimination.
Chief of Strategic Initiatives Aaron Scherzer; Legal Specialists Derek Fischer, Kaley Lentini, and Danielle Thorne; Investigator Charles Washington; and Research Assistant Rohit Tallapragada handled this matter on behalf of DCR. Assistant Attorney General Mayur Saxena; Deputy Attorneys General Renee Greenberg and Nadya Comas; and Law Assistant Joanna Loomis of the Division of Law’s Affirmative Civil Rights and Labor Enforcement Section represented DCR in this initiative.
Anyone who believes their fair housing rights have been violated can file a complaint with DCR by visiting njcivilrights.gov or calling (973) 648-2700.
