The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against owners and managers of Suburban Heights Apartments, a residential rental property in the St. Louis suburb of Kinloch, Missouri, alleging that they discriminated against prospective Black tenants by banning tenants with any past felony conviction and certain other criminal histories.
The defendants – Suburban Heights LLC, Crestline Property LLC, Triline Properties LLC and Jingle Properties LLC – each owned and/or managed the property at various relevant times since at least 2015. The DOJ alleged that from at least November 2015 to January 2024, the defendants publicized and enforced a categorical ban on tenants with felony convictions and certain other criminal histories, regardless of how long ago the conviction occurred.
“This policy excluded prospective tenants based on their criminal histories, which are known to have significant racial disparities, and which are not accurate proxies for actual underlying criminal activity nor reliable predictors of future criminal activity,” said the DOJ in a press statement. “By choosing to use that policy, the defendants likely deterred prospective Black tenants from applying to rent and excluded them from housing opportunities at Suburban Heights Apartments.”
The allegations were based, in part, on evidence generated by the department’s Fair Housing Testing Program, in which individuals pose as prospective renters to gather information about possible discriminatory practices. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages to remedy the harms caused by the defendants’ policy, a civil penalty to vindicate the public interest and a court order barring future discrimination.
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