Philadelphia landlord accused of Section 8 discrimination

A Philadelphia landlord that owns and operates 77 properties in the city is accused of engaging in modern-day redlining by refusing to rent properties in majority-white neighborhoods to people with federal Section 8 vouchers, Bloomberg reported.

The landlord, ProManaged Inc., has been sued in federal and local courts by the nonprofit Housing Equality Center of Pennsylvania for allegedly steering voucher holders to company-owned units in majority-Black neighborhoods.

The nonprofit claims it conducted an investigation from May to December 2021 in which agents posed as potential renters and inquired about ProManaged listings. About half of ProManaged properties are in neighborhoods that are 70 percent white, the outlet reported. A Dec. 8 lawsuit filed in federal court claims that ProManaged only rented units to voucher holders in neighborhoods with mostly Black residents.

The lawsuit alleges the company violated a local law prohibiting discrimination based on a tenant’s income by refusing to rent units in predominantly white neighborhoods to prospective tenants with vouchers

“What you have is a landlord property manager limiting a majority-Black group of renters to housing in majority-Black neighborhoods,” Sari Bernstein, attorney for the Public Interest Law Center that represents the nonprofit, told Bloomberg. “That starts to look a lot like modern-day redlining.”

Voucher holders in Philadelphia are disproportionately Black: 84 percent of renters that have a housing voucher are Black, while only 9 percent are white, the outlet reported without citing its data source.

The Section 8 voucher program has been plagued with problems nationwide. In Connecticut, about half of the vouchers issued to prospective tenants go unused for a variety of reasons, a recent investigation revealed.

In California, illegal housing discrimination against Section 8 voucher holders is “rampant,” the Los Angeles Times recently reported.

In New York, Attorney General Letitia James recently reached a second settlement agreement with Compass over alleged Section 8 discrimination.

— Ted Glanzer