Fairways 1999

On July 8, 1999, two federal district court judges ordered the Trenton based Journal Register Company ("JRC") to no longer publish housing advertisements that expressed a preference for those without children in any of the newspapers it owns and publishes in Philadelphia and surrounding counties. The court further ordered the newspaper chain to continually train all of its advertising personnel in the law, and to pay the Fair Housing Council of Suburban Philadelphia ("FHCSP") $160,000. JRC, who had been under a three year court order since October 1996, will also now be under a new three year order which will last until July 2002.

In 1996, a FHCSP lawsuit over thousands of allegedly illegal ads published from 1989 to 1996 resulted in a three year federal court order and ordered JRC to pay $150,000 to remedy its illegal conduct. Much of the money was used by the FHCSP to buy fair housing advertising to counteract the discriminatory messages of the many JRC newspapers.

However, JRC purchased the InterCounty News Group ("ING") in 1997, and despite the 1996 court order, ING's over half dozen newspapers continually published allegedly discriminatory housing ads even as late as May 1999. Thus, the federal court issued a new Order, which will last until July 2002, requiring a further payment of $160,000 to the FHCSP, that local JRC papers, old and new, no longer publish any discriminatory ads, and that local JRC papers continually train their staff in fair housing law. The new order also resolves a dispute regarding the JRC owned Pottstown Mercury and Main Line Times newspapers, both of whom allegedly published over a thousand discriminatory housing ads from 1988 to 1994. The JRC has denied all wrongdoing as to all of its papers.

This dispute resolves the last outstanding discriminatory advertising lawsuit by the FHCSP. Since 1991, the FHC has engaged in an extensive effort to end housing advertising that stated, "no children," "adults only," "one bedroom apartment, one person only," and other similar ads that expressed a preference for those without children. The FHCSP effort involved fair housing education for dozens of hours for the Realtor, real estate and newspaper industries, and of those who rent or buy housing, placement of dozens of fair housing newspaper advertisements for several years to counter the discriminatory messages of the ads, investigation of scores of Realtors, landlords and newspapers, logging of hundreds of hours of work by the board and staff, filing of almost one hundred fair housing administrative complaints with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and filing of almost two dozen federal lawsuits.

The result of this effort has been complete eradication of housing advertising that denies families with children places to live throughout the Delaware Valley, the opening up of more than ten thousand apartments and homes to families with children in hundreds of communities, and a series of committed actions by the Realtor, real estate and newspaper industries to end all such illegal practices and advertising in the future. Further, to assure illegal discriminatory advertisements will not appear again, over a dozen Realtors, landlords and newspapers were placed under three year court orders, required to pay a total of over $500,000, required to no longer publish illegal advertisements, and required to continually train all of their staff in the law.

The FHCSP thanks all who worked towards the ending of this overt discriminatory practice which harmed thousands of families and promoted segregation of hundreds of communities. We would especially thank those in the Realtor, real estate and newspaper industries who worked with the FHCSP and agreed that fair housing advertising issues had been ignored too long by these industries and that it was time to insure that places to live were advertised in newspapers using non-discriminatory language.

Fair Housing Council of Suburban Philadelphia v. The Mercury, et al., 96-CV-1382, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, U.S. District Court, Order dated July 8, 1999, J. Green, J. Broderick. Attorney for FHCSP: Clifford Boardman. Attorney for JRC: Gregory Harvey. Local JRC newspapers include: The Pottstown Mercury, The Main Line Times, The Daily Local News, The Delaware County Times, The Suburban, The Reporter, The Phoenix, and InterCounty News Group (which has included up to nine separate papers).

Accessible Design and Construction

On Wednesday, April 7, 1999, the Council co-sponsored a seminar on Accessible Design and the Fair Housing Act. The seminar was held at the Chadd’s Ford Ramada Inn and was attended by over 100 attorneys, builders, developers, architects, Realtors, local and federal government employees, and fair housing and disability advocates. The seminar was a joint project between the Council and the Homebuilders Association of Chester & Delaware Counties (HBA), and funding was provided by the Council, the HBA, the Chester County Office of Housing and Community Development (OHCD), the Delaware County OHCD, the U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), and the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) Research Center.

Speakers at the Seminar included Rhonda Daniels and Jay Murdoch of the NAHB Research Center, Ira Goldstein of HUD, and Jim Varhola, a member of the PA Accessibility Advisory Board with the PA Department of Labor & Industry Affairs.

Two of the most important laws that were discussed were the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Under the FHA, the accessibility provisions apply to the following types of housing:

Buildings covered by the law must comply with the following requirements:

Generally, the ADA does not apply to residential housing. However, certain ADA issues arise with the accessibility of common use areas in residential developments if the facilities are open to persons other than owners, residents, and their guests. Examples include: sales and rental offices, sales areas in model homes, pools and clubs open to the general public, and reception rooms that can be rented to non-residents.

When determining what laws apply to your building, it is important to remember that many codes, federal, state and local, may cover your building. In order to avoid confusion regarding which accessibility standards apply to multi-family and other residential projects, architects, builders and developers should remember the following:

Contact the Council office for more information about these guidelines or direction as to where to have your questions answered. The Council still has a limited supply of HUD’s Design and Construction Manual available upon request. 

In 1993 the Council received a complaint about Icedale/Rockville Mobile Home Park. A consumer organization informed the Council that it believed that this community was segregating families with children from only adult households in the park. Upon investigation, the Council discovered advertising in the Daily Local News stating that the park had Adult/Family Sections and that it appeared to be a normal practice for the park to segregate. The Council filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) alleging discrimination based on familial status. In 1994, the PHRC made a finding of Probable Cause of housing discrimination in the case. In 1996, the Council was still awaiting a public hearing before the Commission on the case and decided to file a federal lawsuit. After 6 years, this case has finally been settled to the approval of all parties. Although the owners of Icedale/Rockville admitted to no violation of anti-discrimination laws, it agreed to pay the Council $5,000 for the damages it incurred from investigating and litigating this case.

Theresa & John were searching for a new home for themselves and their two little girls ages 5 and 3. The problem was that every time they called about an apartment, they were informed that no children were allowed. At her wits end, Theresa stumbled across the Council’s advertisement in a local newspaper stating that it was illegal to discriminate against families with children. One of the apartments the Council was able to investigate would have been perfect for Theresa and her family. It was a 2 bedroom apartment that rented for $525, it was available immediately, and was in a perfect location for them. Unfortunately, when Theresa called, the agent informed her that the owner did not allow kids and promptly hung up on her. Testers for the Council experienced similar treatment. Both the Council and Theresa filed a complaints at the US Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) against the owner, Elizabeth O’Donnell. A settlement agreement was reached where Ms. O’Donnell agreed to change her business practices, receive training in fair housing law, and pay damages to the Tuckers in the amount of $3,800 and to the Council in the amount of $1,400.

Bruce was a single father with two children and was searching for a new home. He found what seemed like a perfect place advertised in a local paper. It was a 2 bedroom guest house on a private estate and the rent was perfect. Unfortunately when he called, the owner, Jean Saulnier, informed him that "I don’t want people with children" and rudely hung up the phone on him. Bruce had seen the Council’s advertisement in the same paper that stated that it was illegal to discriminate against families with children and called the Council. Bruce did not want to pursue Ms. Saulnier himself, but hoped the Council could do something about the discrimination so that others did not have it happen to them. Testers for the Council experienced similar treatment to what had happened to Bruce and filed a complaint at HUD alleging housing discrimination. A settlement agreement was reached where Ms. Saulnier agreed to change her business practices, receive training in fair housing law, and pay damages to the Council for the costs of its investigation in the amount of $1,345. 

The Planning Advance Conference was opened and moderated by the President of the Board of Directors of the Fair Housing Council of Suburban Philadelphia, Dr. Jean Moore. She indicated that the Board and staff have been involved in a rolling planning process since Spring 1999. During that process, the following four overarching priorities were identified and accepted by the Board to carry out the purpose of the Council, which, according to the By-Laws, is "to promote open housing."

1. Develop and execute programs to enhance fair housing opportunities
2. Recruit and retain members a) to the Council and b) to the Board
3. Provide professionally prepared staff and volunteers
4. Assure financial stability and resources for the Council.

The purpose of the Planning Advance Conference was to secure input from the participants to guide the direction and planning of the Council's actions over the next three years in carrying out the priorities through a planned programmatic approach. There were 22 participants in the conference. As they introduced themselves around the table, they identified their professions, vocations and affiliations, which covered a wide variety of interests. Board members of the Council constituted more than half of the group.

The agenda for the conference provided for four presentations during the first hour. Participants were then asked to identify and come to consensus on key issues they felt should be addressed by the Council during the next three years. This was followed with a listing of suggested programs that the group thought should be developed to respond to key issues. The afternoon session broke the group into two Clusters. The first dealt with the priority of the Council to "Assure financial stability and resources to carry out the mission and purposes of the Council." Their charge was to determine how to fund the recommended programs. The second cluster was charged with determining a response to the Council's priority of how to "Recruit and maintain a strong diversified board and expanded Council membership. The following is a summary of the major sessions.

Cary Isard, Chairperson of the board's Membership Committee and early member of the founding group of the Council presented the history of the Council which began over 40 years ago as a voluntary/volunteer group dependent on support from persons interested in enabling primarily African Americans to secure access to housing during an extremely restricted and segregated era. Jim Berry, Executive Director of the Council provided a prepared document reviewing the Council Today, which operates through a limited paid staff. He spoke of the extensive work of the Council in the four suburban counties (more in some counties than in others) and the programs that have developed in large part due to the help of governmental funding. Bill Henderson, past president and current Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Council spoke on the Board Today. He indicated some of the shifts between the volunteer nature of the past council and the changes in responsibilities between board and staff. He gave recognition to the historical legacy that still is carried through the ongoing relationship and help offered by some members of the board to fill voids occasioned by the limited number of staff. Finally, the challenges and opportunities for the Council were provided by Cliff Boardman, Esq. who has been legal Counsel for the corporation in providing successful litigation on a number of cases over recent years. The primary challenge that he provided for the council was the consideration of expanding the focus and geographic accountability to include discriminatory activities beyond the field of housing and within the fifth county, namely Philadelphia.

Eleven issues were identified and discussed by the group. This was followed by suggestions for programmatic responses to each of the issues, suggesting ways of dealing with the concerns raised.

Each Cluster was provided with a Charge Statement with guidelines that included questions to be raised in considering their plan. Cluster I was facilitated by Marion Murphy and Recorded by Peter Hill Cluster II was facilitated by Deborah Butler and recorded by Carole Karash. The reports list recommendations for implementing the Council's priorities and complement the morning session.

Following the cluster sessions, the participants reassembled to share their outcomes. Information was recorded and charted during the sessions. The Advance, which began at 8:30 am, was concluded by 3:30 pm. The moderator thanked the participants and indicated that the Board and staff will review and come to closure on the direction and the plans for the Council during the upcoming meetings of the Board.

Argyle Court Apartments is a 36-unit complex located in Ardmore, Montgomery County. Testing of this complex revealed that the owner was informing prospective tenants that families with children were not allowed to live there. The Council filed a complaint with the U. S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) based on the test results.

On October 25, 1999 HUD held a conciliation conference to attempt to resolve the complaint. At that conciliation conference, the owner agreed to enter into an Enforcement Agreement with the Council. The Enforcement Agreement includes an admission by the owners that their policy of not renting to families with children is a violation of the Fair Housing Act. This agreement is precedent setting since it represents the first time a complaint involving a Montgomery County housing provider was settled with such an admission. Other provisions of the Enforcement Agreement require that Argyle’s owners: immediately cease denying otherwise qualified families with children from renting apartments; comply with the Fair Housing Act in the future; attend a fair housing educational program; include the equal housing opportunity logo on all of its materials; display a fair housing poster in each room where there is rental activity; keep records on persons inquiring about the availability or terms of rental of units and all actions taken with respect to each inquiry and the reason for such action; and send a letter to all tenants advising them that children are welcome at Argyle Court Apartments.

The Fair Housing Council of Suburban Philadelphia is widely regarded as the premiere fair housing advocacy agency serving Montgomery County. Argyle’s owners agreed to pay $20,000 to the Council for the setback Argyle caused to the Council’s previous educational and outreach efforts in Montgomery County.

In April the Council co-sponsored a seminar on Accessible Design & construction and the Fair Housing Act. In the August issue of FairWays we discussed many of the issues related to appropriate design & construction of housing built for first occupancy after March 13, 1991. For instance, some of these requirements are: an accessible building entrance, accessible public and common areas, doorway width appropriate for wheelchair access, and environmental controls at designated heights.

Since this conference, the Council has been working on an investigation program to determine compliance with these guidelines. Through funding assistance from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development and a partnership with the Disabilities Law Project a comprehensive investigation program has been developed and implemented. The results of this program show that none of the covered dwellings investigated thus far are compliant with the new construction requirements of the Fair Housing Act.

"The accessibility requirements went into effect over eight years ago," stated Council Executive Director James Berry. "The Fair Housing Act only holds those involved in design (architects) and construction (developers) responsible for non-compliance with the accessibility requirements. However, the governmental agencies that grant building permits and the universities that failed to properly educate their architectural program graduates must also bear some culpability for this problem."

During the upcoming months the Council will be working closely with the Disabilities Law Project to determine the best methods to gain compliance at these new housing developments. If you have any questions regarding the requirements of the law do not hesitate to discuss them with us. The Council has a number of the technical design manuals which are available free of charge, and if we cannot answer your question we will direct you to a resource that can.