HUD settles with PA housing providers over claim of housing discrimination

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has reported it has approved a Conciliation Agreement under the Fair Housing Act between the Metropolitan Management Corporation and Lancaster Court Associates, both of Narberth, Pennsylvania, and a family of former tenants. The agreement resolves allegations that the housing providers discriminated against the family when terminating their lease because a member of the family had a second child. The Fair Housing Acts makes it illegal to discriminate in the sale or rental of housing based on race, color, national origin, disability, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), and familial status.

The agreement stems from a complaint alleging that Metropolitan Management Corporation and Lancaster Court Associates violated the Fair Housing Act by having an overly rigid occupancy policy that discriminated based on familial status. The complaint alleges that when a baby was born to a family of four, Respondents terminated the family’s lease for a two-bedroom unit because of Respondents’ occupancy policy.