The Issue Whether Respondent committed a discriminatory housing practice by denying Petitioners the opportunity to rent or purchase and ordering them to vacate their unit immediately and, if so, what relief should the Florida Commission on Human Relations provide Petitioners.
Findings Of Fact Because no evidence was offered at the final hearing held in the instant case, no findings of fact are made.
Recommendation Based upon the foregoing, it is hereby RECOMMENDED that the Commission issue a Final Order dismissing Petitioners' Petition. DONE AND ENTERED this 29th day of July, 2005, in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida. S STUART M. LERNER Administrative Law Judge Division of Administrative Hearings The DeSoto Building 1230 Apalachee Parkway Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3060 (850) 488-9675 SUNCOM 278-9675 Fax Filing (850) 921-6847 www.doah.state.fl.us Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 29th day of July, 2005. COPIES FURNISHED: Denise Crawford, Agency Clerk Florida Commission on Human Relations 2009 Apalachee Parkway, Suite 100 Tallahassee, Florida 32301 Cecil Howard, General Counsel Florida Commission on Human Relations 2009 Apalachee Parkway, Suite 100 Tallahassee, Florida 32301 Remberto Gomez Marta Gonzalez 15220 Southwest 300th Street, Lot 534 Miami, Florida 33033 Robert E. Paige, Esquire 9500 South Dadeland Boulevard, Suite 550 Miami, Florida 33156
The Issue Whether Respondent committed a discriminatory housing practice by "lock[ing] [Petitioner] out of [his] apartment" at the Arena Hotel, as alleged in Petitioner's housing discrimination complaint, and, if so, what relief should the Florida Commission on Human Relations (Commission) provide Petitioner.
Findings Of Fact Based on the evidence adduced at the final hearing and the record as a whole, the following findings of fact are made: Respondent is a black male. Since 2000, he has maintained a residence at the Arena Hotel (Establishment), a rooming house (with 22 rooms) located in Miami, Florida. Respondent is the former owner of the Establishment. He purchased the Establishment approximately three years ago. At the time of the purchase, there were only a small handful of blacks residing in the Establishment (including Petitioner). The percentage of black residents increased significantly during his ownership. Respondent lived in Israel when he owned the Establishment (as he does now). Every several months he traveled to Miami and visited the Establishment. Respondent had an on-site manager to take care of the day-to-day affairs of the Establishment for him. Respondent also had a brother living in the area on whom he could call to check on the Establishment. The brother, Gil Terem, worked for Majestic Properties, Inc., a Miami-based real estate brokerage firm. Gil Terem assisted in Respondent's sale of the Establishment. From the time Respondent purchased the Establishment until the time he sold it, Petitioner regularly complained to management and various governmental agencies about the conditions in his room and the common areas. Petitioner's complaints were not the only ones management received during this time frame. There were also complaints from residents of the Establishment who claimed that Petitioner was acting aggressively and harassing them. On November 6, 2002, government inspectors conducted an inspection of the Establishment. Later that same day, November 6, 2002, City of Miami police were called to the Establishment by management to look into an allegation of harassment made against Petitioner. Gil Terem was on the premises of the Establishment when the police arrived. Respondent was not present. He was in Israel. Upon their arrival, the police confronted Petitioner and spoke with him. Although the police did not arrest Petitioner or take him into custody, Petitioner was under the impression, following his discussion with the police, that he was not free to reenter his room and that he had to vacate the premises. He therefore left the Establishment without returning to his room. Notwithstanding what Petitioner may have believed, there was no intention to evict him. Petitioner pursued legal action in Miami-Dade Circuit Court alleging that he was illegally removed from his room in the Establishment. On December 4, 2002, in the case of David Powell v. Majestic Properties, Inc., Case No. 02-27703CA30, Miami-Dade County Circuit Court Judge Barbara Levenson issued an Order Granting Plaintiff's Motion for Injunctive Relief, which read as follows: This cause having come on to be heard on Dec. 4, 2002 on Plaintiff's Motion for Injunctive Relief and the Court having heard argument of counsel, and being otherwise advised in the premises, its is hereupon, ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that said Motion be, and the same is hereby, granted. A temporary restraining order is in effect pending the setting of a further hearing. [Plaintiff] is allowed to return to his residence. Following the entry of this Order, Petitioner returned to his room in the Establishment. Because there was a new lock on the door that had been installed during his absence, he was not able to enter the room until Gil Terem came by with a key to let him in. Subsequent to his return to the Establishment, Petitioner initiated various judicial and administrative actions, including the instant one,1 claiming that Respondent and others conspired to unlawfully discriminate against him by depriving him of the opportunity to enjoy the privileges of residing at the Establishment. The record evidence is insufficient to establish that Petitioner was in any way discriminated against on the basis of race or handicap or that any adverse action was taken against him in retaliation for his claiming that he was the victim of housing discrimination.
Recommendation Based on the foregoing Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, it is RECOMMENDED that the Commission issue a final order finding that no "discriminatory housing practice" has been committed and dismissing Petitioner's complaint based on such finding. DONE AND ENTERED this 6th day of October, 2004, in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida. S STUART M. LERNER Administrative Law Judge Division of Administrative Hearings The DeSoto Building 1230 Apalachee Parkway Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3060 (850) 488-9675 SUNCOM 278-9675 Fax Filing (850) 921-6847 www.doah.state.fl.us Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 6th day of October, 2004.
The Issue The issue is whether Respondent discriminated against Petitioner based on his handicap contrary to Section 760.23, Florida Statutes (2009), Fair Housing Act, as amended (the Act).
Findings Of Fact Respondent is a public housing authority that administers the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Housing Choice Voucher Program, known as the “Section 8” program, within Bay County, Florida, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1437f. Under the Section 8 program, Respondent uses funds, supplied by HUD, to pay a percentage of the monthly rent on a leased “unit” directly to the landlord. The Section 8 tenant pays the balance of the monthly rent to the landlord. The percentage paid by Respondent on each Section 8 voucher is determined by the family’s size, income, medical expenses and other similar factors. The percentage is reevaluated annually when the voucher holder is “recertified” for continuing eligibility for the Section 8 program by Respondent’s staff. As part of each recertification, the voucher holder signs a form listing “Family Obligations” required by HUD. In part, the “Family Obligations” require a Section 8 tenant to keep utilities on in the unit and to give the landlord and Respondent written notice before moving out of a unit. After Petitioner moved from New Jersey to Panama City, Florida, he received a Housing Choice Voucher from Respondent on March 23, 2005. He executed a lease for a HUD-approved unit on March 22, 2005. The lease was originally for a term of one year and then automatically became a month-to-month tenancy. Paragraph 27 of the lease requires 14-days’ written notice to terminate the lease. On June 16, 2009, Petitioner visited Respondent’s office and spoke with Andrea Lawson, the Assistant Section 8 Coordinator. She knew Petitioner from several re-certifications she had conducted on his voucher, the most recent one being on February 4, 2009. On June 16, 2009, Petitioner told Ms. Lawson that he wanted to move to be closer to friends and family, and that he and Ms. Maldonado were “bored” because there were not enough activities going on in the area. For these reasons, Petitioner wanted his Section 8 voucher transferred to Osceola County, under the "portability" provision of the Section 8 program. As was her normal custom, Ms. Lawson hand-wrote a memo for the file memorializing the conversation. Petitioner's testimony relative to the above-referenced conversation with Ms. Lawson is not credible. There is no persuasive evidence that Petitioner's apartment flooded in February 2009, or that he requested to have his Section 8 voucher transferred to Osceola County because he was getting sicker and the doctors in Panama City did not "understand" him. The same day as Petitioner’s visit, Ms. Lawson sent an inquiry, via telefax, to the housing authority in Osceola County, asking if they were “absorbing” Section 8 voucher holders. That term means that the receiving housing authority agrees to pay the voucher holder’s rent subsidy in the new locale, and that the original housing authority will have no further obligations to fund the voucher. The housing authority in Osceola County replied that they were not absorbing at that time. Ms. Lawson telephoned Petitioner to inform him of Osceola’s answer. In late fall of 2009, Petitioner telephoned Carol Ramer, a Section 8 Coordinator, several times. He first requested that she again ask the housing authority in Osceola County if it was absorbing, and later twice requested that she ask Orange County if it was absorbing. The replies from both authorities were that they were not absorbing. Letters mailed by Ms. Ramer to the Petitioner, to inform him of the negative replies, were returned to her as undeliverable. In early January 2010, Respondent received a letter from an attorney, on behalf of Petitioner, requesting that Respondent make a reasonable accommodation for Petitioner’s handicap by agreeing to pay the voucher subsidy for him in Osceola County. The situation where the original housing authority agrees to pay for a voucher outside its jurisdiction is referred to in the lexicon of Section 8 as “porting” or “to port”. The letter was the first time Respondent was asked to make an accommodation, or to agree to “porting” the Petitioner. The letter was also the first indication that Respondent received, indicating that Petitioner may have moved to Kissimmee in Osceola County on his own. Because of the letter, Ms. Ramer went to the unit in Parker, Florida, to see if Petitioner was still residing there. She found three United Parcel Service delivery notice stickers affixed to the front door; all three were dated in mid-August 2009. She also found no signs that the unit was occupied. Ms. Ramer then contacted the City of Parker water department and was told the water service to the unit had been shut off at the customer’s request on June 18, 2009. Petitioner and his cousin admitted during the hearing that they put the water “on-hold” before they left. Petitioner asserts that while “passing through the streets” of Kissimmee, he found several apartments that were cheaper than the rent on his unit in Parker. However, he admitted that he did not know if those cheaper units met HUD’s standards for the Section 8 program. Petitioner admitted during the hearing that he left his Section 8 unit in Parker on June 18, 2009, re-located to Kissimmee, and has never returned to Bay County. He also admitted that he never gave his landlord or Respondent any written notice that he intended to vacate his unit in Parker. In addition, he admitted he is familiar with the Section 8 Family Obligation rules and signed off that he would comply with them. In recent years, HUD has significantly cut back its Section 8 funding allotted to local housing authorities. At the same time, the downturn in the economy has increased unemployment in Bay County, thus requiring Respondent either to pay a greater percentage of existing Section 8 vouchers or to terminate some vouchers. Increased unemployment has forced Respondent to implement cost cutting measures, including the following: (a) through attrition, reducing the number of families served under the voucher program from over 420 several years ago to only 326 now; (b) issuing no new vouchers; (c) adopting a policy that it would not “absorb” voucher holders moving into Bay County and would not “port” voucher holders to jurisdictions outside Bay County. No one has been "ported" out or "absorbed" in three years. This policy applies across the board to all voucher holders. The only families who have moved out during this period and retained their vouchers are those that were “absorbed” by the receiving housing authorities. Both Osceola and Orange Counties are higher cost areas than Bay County. If Respondent were to agree to “port” a voucher to either of those counties, it would have to pay more than it pays for one family in Bay County, thus reducing its ability to serve as many local residents as possible with its limited funding. Petitioner presented no evidence of quantifiable damages.
Recommendation Based on the foregoing Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, it is RECOMMENDED: That the Florida Commission on Human Relations issue a final order dismissing the Petition for Relief. DONE AND ENTERED this 9th day of August, 2010, in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida. S SUZANNE F. HOOD Administrative Law Judge Division of Administrative Hearings The DeSoto Building 1230 Apalachee Parkway Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3060 (850) 488-9675 Fax Filing (850) 921-6847 www.doah.state.fl.us Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 9th day of August, 2010. COPIES FURNISHED: Adalberto Diaz 2307 Boggy Creek Road, Box 38 Kissimmee, Florida 34744 William C. Henry, Esquire Burke Blue Hutchison Walters & Smith, P.A. 16215 Panama City Beach Parkway Panama City, Florida 32413 Denise Crawford, Agency Clerk Florida Commission on Human Relations 2009 Apalachee Parkway, Suite 100 Tallahassee, Florida 32301 Larry Kranert, General Counsel Florida Commission on Human Relations 2009 Apalachee Parkway, Suite 100 Tallahassee, Florida 32301
The Issue The issue in this case is whether Petitioners have been subjected to illegal discriminatory treatment by Respondent in violation of the Florida Fair Housing Act.
Findings Of Fact Petitioners' complaint, which was dismissed by FCHR on March 24, 2003, resulted from a Housing Discrimination Complaint dual-filed with FCHR and HUD. Petitioners seek to become landlords under the Federal government's Section 8 Program, administered in the Ocala area by Respondent. It is the responsibility of Respondent to receive applications from owners of properties, like Petitioners, who are willing to rent those properties to economically adversely-affected individuals. Respondent then inspects the properties and determines a rental allowance or the amount of supplemental Federal money to be paid the landowner for the rental of a specific property, thereby allowing the economically deprived person a place to live. Petitioners claim that Respondent has discriminated against them by refusing to allow Petitioners to participate in the Section 8 program; specifically, by not making reasonable rent determinations and delaying inspections which are preliminary to a determination of a rental rate. Petitioners did not offer evidence of any specific acts of race-based discrimination. Nor did Petitioners cite any specific information concerning disparate treatment of landlords in the Section 8 program based on race. Further, Petitioners were unable to cite any statistical information that could reasonably lead to the inference that Respondent engaged in wide-spread discrimination. Petitioners’ race-based claims were not supported by any specific information about disparate treatment by Respondent. Petitioners contested the amount of rent which Respondent determined to be applicable to the subject property. As long as the amount of rent was contested, Respondent could not make a rent determination for the Petitioners' properties. A letter to Petitioners from Respondent, dated October 9, 2002, provided Petitioners with notice that Respondent had been advised by its attorney that it could not make a rent determination while the HUD complaint was pending. The letter further stated that should Petitioners withdraw their complaint, their application would be processed.
Recommendation Based on the foregoing Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, it is RECOMMENDED: That a Final Order be entered dismissing the Petition for Relief. DONE AND ENTERED this 15th day of September, 2003, in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida. S DON W. DAVIS Administrative Law Judge Division of Administrative Hearings The DeSoto Building 1230 Apalachee Parkway Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3060 (850) 488-9675 SUNCOM 278-9675 Fax Filing (850) 921-6847 www.doah.state.fl.us Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 15th day of September, 2003. COPIES FURNISHED: Denise Crawford, Agency Clerk Florida Commission on Human Relations 2009 Apalachee Parkway, Suite 100 Tallahassee, Florida 32301 David E. Midgett, Esquire Ocala Housing Authority 2800 East Silver Springs Boulevard Suite 205 Ocala, Florida 34470 Larry Williams Monica Williams Post Office Box 01322 Miami, Florida 33101-3221 Cecil Howard, General Counsel Florida Commission on Human Relations 2009 Apalachee Parkway, Suite 100 Tallahassee, Florida 32301
The Issue Whether Respondent engaged in an unlawful discriminatory housing practice against Petitioner on the basis of her disability.
Findings Of Fact At all times relevant hereto, Petitioner, Joan Vassar, was an individual participant in a tenant-based voucher arrangement under the Section 8 Housing Program funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and administered by the Tallahassee Housing Authority (THA). Petitioner was a resident of The Lakes at San Marcos (The Lakes), an apartment complex located at 4768 Woodville Highway in Tallahassee, Florida. Respondent, CMP CHP San Marcos Ltd. (San Marcos), is the owner of The Lakes, which is managed by a company known as HSI. Petitioner has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and has suffered multiple strokes. Petitioner is disabled for purposes of the Fair Housing Act. Beginning in August 2009, Petitioner rented apartment 1533 at The Lakes, a one-bedroom apartment on the third floor of building 15. Petitioner’s rent was paid directly to San Marcos by THA pursuant to Petitioner’s one-bedroom housing choice voucher. Petitioner had difficulty climbing the stairs to her third-floor apartment and often took breaks at each landing to rest. There was no elevator at The Lakes as an alternative means of accessing the third floor of building 15. By all accounts, Petitioner’s tenancy at The Lakes was peaceful and without incident. In 2011, Valarie Gosier-Coleman became the assistant manager of The Lakes. Petitioner described Ms. Gosier-Coleman as compassionate toward her. Ms. Gosier-Coleman occasionally disposed of Petitioner’s garbage for her and retrieved Petitioner’s mail. In May 2014, Petitioner reported to Ms. Gosier-Coleman that her health had declined, that she would need a live-in caregiver, and that she wished to move to a two-bedroom, first-floor apartment. On June 4, 2014, in response to Petitioner’s request, Respondent informed Petitioner in writing that two two-bedroom, first-floor apartments--1311 and 1413--would become available beginning August 1, 2014. Apartment 1413 was located in the building next to Petitioner’s existing apartment, and Petitioner indicated she would accept that apartment. HSI requires all occupants of an apartment to complete an application and be approved to rent. Petitioner brought her would-be caregiver to The Lakes to apply for apartment 1413. However, the caregiver was reticent to complete the financial information section of the application. Although she took the incomplete application with her when she left the office, the caregiver never submitted a completed application for the apartment. Shortly thereafter, Petitioner was offered apartment 1116, a one-bedroom first-floor apartment. On July 16, 2014, Petitioner rejected that apartment, sight unseen, as “too far in the back of the complex.” On July 31, 2014, Petitioner renewed her lease for apartment 1533. At that time, she wrote to management, “I do not want a (2) bedroom apt. any place except where I specified for personal reasons. I have been here for 5 years and am very secure and familiar with my neighbors in my building . . . . Plus, my family lives in this same building on the first floor.”1/ No other first-floor apartments became available at The Lakes between August and October 2014. Shortly after renewing her lease, Petitioner informed HSI that she desired to leave The Lakes. Petitioner requested to break her lease, which Respondent allowed. Respondent refunded Petitioner’s deposit in full.
Recommendation Based on the foregoing Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, it is RECOMMENDED that the Florida Commission on Human Relations enter a final order dismissing the Complaint and Petition for Relief. DONE AND ENTERED this 22nd day of December, 2015, in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida. S SUZANNE VAN WYK Administrative Law Judge Division of Administrative Hearings The DeSoto Building 1230 Apalachee Parkway Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3060 (850) 488-9675 Fax Filing (850) 921-6847 www.doah.state.fl.us Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 22nd day of December, 2015.
