Story out of St. Louis, Missouri:
Tenants of homes owned by a pair of St. Louis landlords say they weren’t just subjected to inappropriate sexual comments, but that one landlord also offered to look the other way on the rent if tenants would sleep with him. When the renters refused these advances, they claim the landlords tried to throw them out on the streets.
Some tenants eventually filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the subsequent investigation found sufficient evidence to move forward with a discrimination action against the landlords.
The landlords live across the river in Illinois but run at least four rental properties in St. Louis. One former tenant claims that her brief tenure in one of their units was marked by repeated harassment.
According to the complaint, this unacceptable behavior ranged from the landlords pressing her for personal information about her sexual preferences: “whether she had a boyfriend, how she engaged in sex with her girlfriend, whether she and her girlfriend engaged in threesomes, and whether she and her girlfriend would engage in a threesome with [the landlord].”
The tenant says this landlord attempted to touch her breasts, and offered to forgive or reduce the rent if she would engage in sexual acts with him.
While the suit is being brought by the government and not the tenants, it could still ultimately provide monetary damages to compensate the alleged victims. The DOJ is also seeking civil penalties and a court order barring future discrimination. Cont.
Story from - Consumerist
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