JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUES ALBUQUERQUE APARTMENT OWNER AND MANAGERS FOR RACE AND FAMILIAL STATUS DISCRIMINATION

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced that it has filed a housing discrimination lawsuit against the owners and managers of three apartment complexes in Albuquerque, New Mexico, alleging discrimination against apartment seekers and tenants on the basis of race, color and family status.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, alleges discrimination against African Americans and families with children. The complaint names as defendants Fair Plaza Associates, a limited partnership that owns El Pueblo Apartments and Fair Plaza Apartments, its general partner and others.

The lawsuit seeks an order prohibiting the defendants from engaging in unlawful housing discrimination at all the apartment complexes they own or manage, monetary damages for victims, and payment of a civil penalty.

This lawsuit was filed as the result of an investigation and referral by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD initiated its investigation based on a housing discrimination complaint filed by the Fair Housing Project of the Legal Aid Society of Albuquerque.

The primary focus of the fair housing testing program is to identify unlawful housing discrimination based on race, national origin, disability, or familial status.

Individuals who believe that they may have been the victim of housing discrimination by the defendants or at El Pueblo Apartments, Fair Plaza Apartments or Playa del Sol Apartments, should call the Justice Department's Housing and Civil Enforcement Section at 1-800-896-7743, Extension 996. For more information about the Civil Rights Division, and the laws it enforces, go to www.usdoj.gov/crt.

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