On February 20, the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia (OAG) announced that it has filed a complaint in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia alleging that a real estate lending firm engaged in unlawful housing discrimination by financing developers who excluded tenants without housing subsidies from rent-controlled units. The complaint claimed the lender appraised and issued loans based on developers’ promises to lease exclusively to subsidized tenants, thereby circumventing rent control caps and charging higher rents than would be allowed for unsubsidized residents. According to the complaint, this practice denied more than 300 rent-controlled apartments across multiple wards to tenants who relied on rent stabilization for affordability.
The OAG alleged two specific violations of the Human Rights Act: (i) the lender unlawfully appraised properties based on the source of income of prospective tenants; and (ii) the lender implemented lending policies that had the effect of denying unsubsidized tenants housing based on their source of income. The complaint requested a jury trial, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to halt these practices, along with civil penalties of $10,000 per violation, restitution, damages, attorneys’ fees, and costs.
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