News Story (Virginia)
Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post
May 23, 2016
READ THE FULL STORY HERE
Tags: Housing: Discrimination, Housing: Landlord-Tenant, Immigration Process
Organizations mentioned/involved: Legal Aid Justice Center (Virginia)
DETAILS
Attorneys for the families are alleging that the requirement for all tenants to have a Social Security card, visa and related documents or a passport is discriminatory because it disproportionately affects Latinos. Similar policies imposed by cities and counties across the country have been overturned in federal courts but few, if any, suits have been filed against private landlords, the attorneys said.
“This type of discrimination is all too common, but the law is unfortunately far from clear,” said Ivy Finkenstadt, managing attorney with the Legal Aid Justice Center, which is representing the families along with the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. “We are hoping that the federal court in Alexandria will take it one step further and prohibit this practice by a private landlord as well.”