Operation Home Sweet Home: Justice Department Settles Massachusetts Discrimination...

Operation Home Sweet Home: Justice Department Settles Massachusetts
Discrimination Case on Behalf of Asian-Americans

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Justice Department today
announced that it has reached a settlement in the first lawsuit ever filed by
the Department alleging discrimination against Asian-American victims based
upon its fair housing testing program. Under the consent decree filed today in
federal court in Boston, defendant Pine Properties Inc. and six affiliated
entities will pay up to $158,000 in monetary relief to victims and the United
States.

The Department's complaint alleges that the defendants violated the Fair
Housing Act by discriminating based on national origin against
Cambodian-Americans seeking to rent apartments. Defendants subjected
Cambodian-American apartment seekers to requirements not imposed on white
apartment seekers and refused to show available apartments to
Cambodian-American apartment seekers because they did not have a separate
appointment, while at the same time taking white persons to see available
dwellings immediately, with no prior appointment. Defendants own and operate
13 rental properties in Lowell, Mass.

This case resulted from Operation Home Sweet Home, the Attorney General's
initiative to expose housing discrimination in America. In fiscal year 2007,
the Department conducted a record number of undercover housing discrimination
investigations, nearly double the number of the prior year. More information
about Operation Home Sweet Home is available at the Justice Department Web
site at http://www.usdoj.gov/fairhousing.

"The Fair Housing Act protects individuals of every national origin-including
Asian-Americans," said Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General
for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "This settlement is an
example of the success Operation Home Sweet Home is having in pro-actively
uncovering housing discrimination."

Under the consent decree, which must still be approved by the U.S. District
Court in Boston, the defendants will pay up to $114,000 to compensate victims,
pay a $44,000 civil penalty to the U.S. government, establish and follow
non-discriminatory tenancy procedures, undergo fair housing training, and file
reports with the government.

Individuals who believe they may have been injured by the defendants'
discrimination at Pine Properties should call the Department's Housing and
Civil Enforcement Section at 1-800-896-7743, ext. 95, or send an email to
fairhousing@usdoj.gov.

The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing based on
race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability and familial status.
Since Jan. 1, 2001, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has filed
242 cases to enforce the Fair Housing Act, 22 of which have alleged
discrimination based on national origin. More information about the Civil
Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs, +1-202-514-2007, TDD:
+1-202-514-1888