Housing Authority Admits No Wrongdoing, But Quickly Coughs Up $180K Anyway To Settle Fair Housing Lawsuit; "Code Words" That Substitute For Overt Racial Language Were Allegedly Used In Emails In Connection With Effort To Reject Homeless Black Single Mom For Section 8 Rent Subsidy/Housing Voucher

In Hartford, Connecticut, the Hartford Courant reports:

• Equalla Jenkins didn't see any blatant signs of racial discrimination when the Mansfield Housing Authority rejected her for a Section 8 voucher in 2014.
  
  All she knew was that she was living in transitional housing through a shelter, working 15 hours a week at a store in her hometown of Middletown, living from place to place with her 5-year-old son. After years on the Mansfield authority's waiting list, she had made it to the top.
  
  Now she had to show up at the office and fill out some forms before finally receiving a subsidy for her own apartment. It was in reach; under federal law, housing authorities can deny Section 8 subsidies only for issues such as criminal records or drugs, not income or transportation -- and Jenkins' record was clean.
  
  But the authority rejected her, saying she didn't show that she could get to her job at Bob's Stores in Middletown, a 50-minute drive from the authority's territory of Mansfield and four rural towns.
  
  She told them she had a cousin willing to drive her. And she even had a car, though it wasn't legal yet. "I was working to get the money to get it registered and insured," Jenkins said. "They just didn't care."
  
  Two years later, Jenkins, who is African American, has won a $180,000 settlement, ending a federal racial discrimination lawsuit filed in January against the Mansfield Housing Authority and its executive director, Rebecca Fields.
  
  Fields and other authority employees never referred to Jenkins' race. They didn't have to in order for the Connecticut Fair Housing Center(1) to file a credible lawsuit with Jenkins as plaintiff.
  
  Instead, the authority used what federal courts have come to describe as "code words" that substitute for overt racial language. Jenkins never heard or saw any of those words -- rather, they were contained in emails to the Fair Housing Center and Jenkins' case worker from a shelter in Middletown.
  
  In the settlement, the authority and Fields did not admit any wrongdoing or any violations of the Fair Housing Act (part of the Civil Rights Act of 1965) or other federal rules.
  
  But the code words were enough to bring a settlement in just over six months. That's lightning fast as federal cases go.
  
  For example, the authority openly discouraged "urbanites...who have not ventured far from their urban surroundings" from applying.
  
  Jenkins' case is not unique in Connecticut; I wrote about a similar one three years ago involving Crystal Carter, a woman with six children who sued the Winchester authority along with the Fair Housing Center and won a $350,000 settlement, of which she received $75,000. But settlements and rulings are highly unusual.
  
  The takeaway: First, subtle and not-so-subtle barriers are alive and well for non-white applicants in some towns. And second, it isn't necessary to show evidence of flagrant racism in order to bring a claim of racial bias under federal law.
  
  ***
  Under the settlement, the Mansfield authority must, among other measures, eliminate income requirements; create a fair housing outreach plan; maintain a list of applicants and reasons for rejection, by race and nationality if possible; and stop discouraging applicants.
  
  The authority quickly offered Jenkins a voucher after the lawsuit was filed, and waived a one-year residence requirement.
  
  Jenkins, who was homeless for a time after the rejection, today lives in Middletown, in a racially mixed neighborhood in an $800-a-month, two-bedroom apartment on the first floor of a three-family house. She just bought a 7-year-old Audi.
  
  When her second-grade son returned home on the bus on a recent afternoon, eager for a snack, she said he's done a complete turnaround, "ever since I've been able to be stable and happier, too."

For more, see 'Code Words' Lead To Big Settlement In Housing Case (In a racial bias case, Middletown woman wins $180,000 after she was denied a Section 8 voucher).

-------------------------

(1) The Connecticut Fair Housing Center is a non-profit fair housing organization that provides investigative and legal services to Connecticut residents who believe they have been the victims of housing discrimination. The Center also has provided education and conducted outreach on fair housing and fair lending issues throughout Connecticut.