| 
iStock illustration
A South Shore brokerage and three local real estate agents are facing significant fines after accusations by Attorney General Maura Healey’s office that they engaged in what her office characterized as “widespread” discrimination against prospective apartment tenants receiving public assistance.
Brokers affiliated with Free and Clear Realty, Century 21 Annex, Unlimited Sotheby’s International Realty, and Success! Real Estate Inc., violated state fair housing and consumer protection laws by illegally denying low-income people the opportunity to rent an apartment because of their receipt of public assistance through the federal Section 8 housing voucher program, Healey’s office said in a statement.
Some of the settlements also resolve allegations of discrimination against families with children or the publishing of discriminatory advertisements marketing rental apartments, Healey’s office said.
“Rental assistance programs are critical to the economic security of our most vulnerable residents, particularly people of color and people with disabilities. Unfortunately, this type of widespread discrimination is representative of the barriers many face in the search for safe and affordable housing,” Healey said in a statement. “Housing providers cannot use the requirements of these programs as an excuse to refuse to rent. We will continue to hold accountable those who deny residents access to housing based on bias.”
Under Massachusetts law, it is illegal to discriminate against any individual who receives federal, state or local housing subsidies like Section 8 vouchers. It is also illegal for housing providers to discriminate against people on the basis of race, gender, family status and sexual orientation.
The allegations were the result of an investigation initiated by the Suffolk University Housing Discrimination Testing Program of rental discrimination on the South Shore and referred to Healey’s office. The program released a separate investigation earlier this year into real estate agents’ practices in Boston that, it said, also uncovered significant discrimination. At the time, industry groups like the Greater Boston Real Estate Board condemned discrimination by agents and called for the names of the agents responsible to be made public so they could be sanctioned by professional bodies like GBREB or the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.
According to a statement from Healey’s office, a tenant inquired about the rental of at least four separate South Shore properties listed by Jeffrey Madeiras, broker at Braintree-based Free & Clear Realty between July 2018 and March 2019. In each of these instances, Healey’s office said, Madeiras terminated contact with the tenant after she disclosed receipt of public assistance or that a child would live with her in the apartment. Subsequent testing of the properties found evidence of discrimination by the broker against voucher holders and families with children. Under the terms of the settlement with Free & Clear Realty, the unnamed broker will pay $15,000 in restitution and attend annual training on state and federal Fair Housing laws for three years.
Healey also claimed that Kenneth Huang, a Realtor with Quincy-based Century 21 Annex, increased the rent on a Braintree property after a Section 8 voucher-holder applied and disclosed her receipt of public assistance. The broker wrongly believed that the rent increase placed the property just outside of the voucher’s rent cap and denied the tenant the opportunity to rent the apartment. According to Healey’s office, the broker continued to market the property and ultimately selected an individual who did not participate in the voucher program and who had a lower credit score than the Section 8 voucher-holder. Under the terms of the settlement, the broker has paid $9,000 in restitution and attended Fair Housing training.
The third case identified by Healey’s office involved Desmond Chang, a broker affiliated with Unlimited Sotheby’s International’s Brookline office. That broker allegedly made false representations to a variety of prospective tenants with rental assistance vouchers, as well as prospective tenants with children, in response to inquiries about the availability of a Braintree apartment. The broker allegedly told a tenant, who was a Section 8 voucher-holder, that the landlord had selected another applicant, while the property remained on the market for weeks. Healey’s office also says that, despite Unlimited Sotheby’s maintenance of a compliance program designed to ensure that brokers followed federal and state fair housing laws, this broker made a number of misleading statements in connection with the rental of this property. Under the terms of the settlement, the broker has paid $9,000 in restitution and completed Fair Housing training.
The largest penalty in the four cases – nearly $80,000 – involves Braintree-based Success! Real Estate. According to Healey’s office, various brokers affiliated with Braintree-based Success! published advertisements in 2018 and 2019 for rental apartments throughout the South Shore area that included statements like “one person only,” which Healey’s office identified as discriminating against couples and families, or “you must have good credit and decent work history” and “verifiable employment required,” which Healey’s office said discriminates against people who receive public assistance or who may be unable to work. Under the terms of the settlement, Success has undertaken significant efforts to ensure company-wide compliance with Fair Housing laws, will implement fair housing training policies for its brokers and agreed to pay $79,200 to the state, of which $66,000 will be suspended and then waived pending compliance with the terms of the agreement.
Healey’s office did not name the Success! agents involved, citing the nature of the settlement as being with the company, not the individual agents.
