The Equal Rights Center, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights organization, has filed a lawsuit against Arlington, Virginia-based housing REIT AvalonBay Communities, alleging that the housing REIT discriminated against tenants with housing vouchers and falsely advertised bedroom counts at its AVA NoMa property.
The entities named as defendants in the complaint, filed on June 3 in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, include AvalonBay and its ownership subsidiary for AVA NoMa, Arlington-based Archstone North Capitol Hill 2 LP.
AVA NoMa, located in the NoMa neighborhood in Washington, is a 438-unit apartment building that advertises 101 studio, 184 one-bedroom, 96 two-bedroom and 57 three-bedroom units, according to the lawsuit.
However, in 47% of the one-bedroom units, 50% of the two-bedrooms and 100% of the three-bedrooms, at least one of the advertised sleeping areas lacks a window, according to the complaint. Under the D.C. Housing Code Standards, a room cannot legally be considered a bedroom unless it has a window or frosted glass that lets in a certain amount of natural light scaled to the size of the room, according to court documents.
“D.C.’s housing code requires windows in bedrooms as a matter of basic health and safety,” said Kate Scott, executive director of the ERC, in a news release. “The complaint alleges that AVA NoMa skirted this basic requirement, and played fast and loose with its tenants’ well-being.”
Renters that don’t use housing vouchers would not encounter any trouble leasing these units because of their bedroom windows. However, in order for a potential renter with a housing voucher to lease a unit in Washington, the unit must pass an inspection from the District of Columbia Housing Authority.
An apartment advertised as a two-bedroom unit with windows in only one of its designated bedrooms would only pass DCHA inspection as a one-bedroom unit, according to the complaint. At that point, the DCHA would consider the rent charged — scaled for a two-bedroom unit — excessive for a one-bedroom, and the voucher holder would not be approved to rent the apartment.
In the course of the ERC’s investigation, which stemmed from complaints from its clients about not being able to rent at AVA NoMa, the organization found that the property’s management may have known about the issue with voucher holders as early as 2020, according to the ERC. When ERC testers called the property to ask about renting with a voucher, the leasing agent told them directly that while vouchers were accepted, they would not be approved for many of the building’s units, according to court documents.
The plaintiff alleges that AvalonBay violated the District’s consumer protection and anti-discrimination laws by falsely advertising its legal bedroom counts and preventing voucher holders from being approved for leases. It also states that voucher holders are actively encouraged not to apply to the property. AvalonBay Communities did not respond to a request for comment from Multifamily Dive.
The ERC is asking for a judgment stating that the defendants violated these laws, an injunction requiring them to immediately correct their advertising and any other judgments as the court sees fit, according to the lawsuit.
