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A landlord and building owner from Texas have been charged with violating the Fair Housing Act after refusing to rent an apartment to an African American man.
This latest set of charges laid by The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) came about after leasing agent Georgia Crumbly and property owner Johnny Brown allegedly discriminated against prospective tenant Bennie Rogers because of the color of his skin.
Rogers reportedly responded to a Bonham, Texas newspaper advertisement in March of 2004 and arranged to meet Crumbly to look at an apartment.
Upon arrival at the apartment building owned by Johnny Brown and managed by Crumbly, the latter informed Bennie Rogers that Johnny Brown, ‘didn’t rent to blacks.’
Bennie Rogers went on to file a complaint with HUD and when Johnny Brown got wind of the situation he made attempts to disassociate himself from Crumbly, claiming that she did not work for him. However, HUD’s investigation showed this to be untrue. The investigation revealed that Crumbly performed various duties such as collecting rent and showing units to prospective tenants, as any landlord would.
After the complaint was filed by Rogers Brown relieved Crumbly of her duties, passing them off to someone else instead.
When both Brown and Crumbly were confronted with the charges, Crumbly said that Brown told her not to rent to blacks and Brown, in return, disputed this saying that he had rented to African American people in the past.
HUD’s investigation showed that Brown had rented a unit to one African American person in 10 years and that person was part of an interracial couple.
Brown and Crumbly are scheduled to appear in court in February and if convicted they could face charges of up to $11,000.
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