23 Seattle landlords charged with discriminating against tenants with rent vouchers, disabilities
After an undercover investigation by the Seattle Office for Civil Rights, 23 landlords there face discrimination charges from the agency.
The largest number of charges involve Section 8 vouchers, according to the Seattle Times. Discrimination related to Section 8 vouchers is prohibited in Seattle. Out of 97 tests, 13 resulted in the agency finding that the landlords would not respond to requests from people who mentioned they had housing vouchers or told them they would not take the payments.
The process also found that some landlords gave less information to testers who had children, or cited occupancy standards as an excuse to not rent to families with children. Additionally, some landlords rejected testers with service animals and hung up on those using a phone service that assists people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech disabled.
“Housing discrimination is real in Seattle,” Ed Murray, the city’s mayor, said in a statement. “These test results tell us that we still have work to do to achieve fair housing.”
Last year, the agency tested for race, national origin, sexual orientation and gender discrimination in housing, and brought charges against 13 landlords. Settlements with those landlords came to more than $19,000, according to the article.
