March 14, 2022
A bench trial starting Monday in Connecticut federal court will determine if a third-party company’s conduct while screening tenants was racially discriminatory in violation of the Fair Housing Act, a claim that is typically leveled at individual housing providers.
The 2018 suit against CoreLogic Rental Property Solutions, which has since been spun off as SafeRent Solutions LLC and is no longer connected to CoreLogic, was filed by the Connecticut Fair Housing Center and Carmen Arroyo, mother and conservator of a young man who saw his rental application rejected in 2016 based on an unspecified criminal record.
The plaintiffs argue that SafeRent violated the Fair Housing Act, which outlaws denying housing based on race or national origin, because its algorithmic CrimSAFE product can disqualify a renter simply based on the existence of a criminal record such as a charge or conviction, disproportionately denying housing to Black and Latino renters.
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Arroyo and Connecticut Fair Housing Center are represented by Christine E. Webber, Brian C. Corman and Joseph M. Sellers of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, Greg Kirschner, Salmun Kazerounian and Sarah White of the Connecticut Fair Housing Center, and Eric Dunn of the National Housing Law Project.
Read Trial To Ask: Was Tenant Screener’s Conduct Discriminatory?.