Topics and Issues

Fair Housing Act (FHA) (3)

Residential/Tenant Screening (84)

A bench trial ended in November 2022 before the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. As reported by Law 360, “[t]he novel trial came amid mounting scrutiny of products designed to be neutral, and the outcome could have implications in areas including housing and employment, experts have said. Law 360 adds that “counsel for CoreLogic Rental Property Solutions, now SafeRent Solutions LLC, argued that the company should not be under scrutiny for the 2016 tenancy denial of a disabled young man rendered by one of its clients, property manager WinnResidential, which is not a party in the case…’CoreLogic is a software provider, not a housing provider,”‘ Timothy St. George of Troutman Pepper told the court.”

The case involves “SafeRent’s CrimSAFE product, a tool that delivers notice of prospective tenants’ criminal records based on a housing provider’s chosen look-back periods for convictions and severity of charges. St. George said Monday that the tool filters out most criminal records, freeing up its clients to carefully assess the few records that do come through.”

Law 360 continues:

…plaintiffs Carmen Arroyo, who is the mother of the disabled applicant, and the Connecticut Fair Housing Center argue that SafeRent violated the Fair Housing Act [FHA], which outlaws denying housing based on race or national origin, because CrimSAFE can disqualify a renter based on the existence of a criminal record, disproportionately denying housing to minority renters.

The case centers around Arroyo’s son Mikhail, who is Latino. Mikhail was allegedly charged with shoplifting in 2014, but was never convicted. By the time WinnResidential denied his request to move in with his mother at ArtSpace Windham in Willimantic in 2016 — citing a record found on his CrimSAFE report — he had suffered a traumatic brain injury.

In her closing argument, counsel for the plaintiffs said that “CrimSAFE does not merely filter and categorize … it delivers a decision.”

The case is Connecticut Fair Housing Ctr et al v. CoreLogic Rental Property Solutions, LLC, U.S. Dist. Ct. (D. Conn.) No.3:18-cv-00705. Plaintiffs Arroyo and Connecticut Fair Housing Center are represented by Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC,  the Connecticut Fair Housing Center, and the National Housing Law Project. CoreLogic Rental Property Solutions is represented Troutman Pepper.

The case is Connecticut Fair Housing Center et al. v. CoreLogic Rental Property Solutions LLC, case number 3:18-cv-00705, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.

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