PebHmong Discussion Forum
News & Announcements => News Headlines => Hmong News => Topic started by: Siabdub on April 22, 2015, 03:00:14 PM
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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has charged a Champlin rental company with housing discrimination .
The agency says in a release that the Renter's Avenue and its owner, Page Edmunds, refused to rent to a family of four of Hmong decent.
He also attempted to charge them to have the lease translated, made discriminatory statements and retaliated against them for exercising their fair housing rights, according to the release from HUD.
The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to discriminate in the rental or sale of housing or to impose different rental terms and conditions based on national origin, race, color, religion, sex, family status or disability.
HUD says the family made a fair housing complaint after paying an $80 application fee to rent a three-bedroom townhouse in Champlin in March of 2014. The family includes a mother, adult son and two children.
After the family met all of the requirements for rental, Edmunds told the family they would have to pay $500 to translate the lease.
When the woman's son challenged Edmund's reason for denying their application as unlawful discrimination, Edmunds threatened to report the son, who holds a real estate license, to the Minnesota department that governs real-estate licensing.
The charge could be heard by a U.S. Administrative Law Judge. If the judge finds discrimination, they can order relief and payment of lawyer's fees. The judge can also levy fines.
A call to Edmunds has not been returned.
http://kstp.com/news/stories/S3774288.shtml?cat=1 (http://kstp.com/news/stories/S3774288.shtml?cat=1)
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I am happy the Son is excersing his full rights and taking legal action! Not many minorities do so.
O0
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freaking awesome hope he sues and get some money, this country is the best when it comes down to the green papers O0
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The son is a license realtor but needs the lease agreement to be translated because he cannot read English?
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I've seen this happened to many Hmong families throughout the cities and other places. It has to do with policy and insurance reasons for such places like hospitals they're required to translate or get an interpreter for legal obligations. I don't know if the contracts include a clause that you can get out of but there can be fines to the owners if they don't properly address it.
In this case the son is doing the right thing to bring him to justice. It's purely discrimination, just like how in the 1960's south they required blacks to fill an extensive educational survey before voting and if they failed they couldn't vote. Used primarily to prevent them from voting.
Many landlords do not like Hmong folks renting from them because they've had many complaints about "hu plig" ceremonies where the shaman has to do jingle bell and haiv kwv txiaj very loud in the morning! My advice is if you are going to do jingle bell and bang on a gong for 2 hours straight, better warn your neighbors first!
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I've tried looking on BBB and it says the business is closed. What's the deal?
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I've seen this happened to many Hmong families throughout the cities and other places. It has to do with policy and insurance reasons for such places like hospitals they're required to translate or get an interpreter for legal obligations. I don't know if the contracts include a clause that you can get out of but there can be fines to the owners if they don't properly address it.
In this case the son is doing the right thing to bring him to justice. It's purely discrimination, just like how in the 1960's south they required blacks to fill an extensive educational survey before voting and if they failed they couldn't vote. Used primarily to prevent them from voting.
Many landlords do not like Hmong folks renting from them because they've had many complaints about "hu plig" ceremonies where the shaman has to do jingle bell and haiv kwv txiaj very loud in the morning! My advice is if you are going to do jingle bell and bang on a gong for 2 hours straight, better warn your neighbors first!
Ahhh....To debate on this, I don't see African American's warn their neighbors about blasting loud ass music.....It's not just Hmong folks that makes noises....Ever yone from every cultures makes loud noises....It just depends on the type of family living next to you....
Majority of the families I know that do jingle bells, they have a full house not an apartment....
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Here's the story from a different news agency:
http://www.startribune.com/local/west/300964381.html (http://www.startribune.com/local/west/300964381.html)
After the family members met all requirements for rental, Edmunds told them they would have to pay $500 to have the lease translated and then denied their application, saying: “I regret that the rental application has been denied. Both adults would have to sign the contract. [Your mother] appears to have limited English skills. … [T]he contract must be translated to her native language. If not, she could easily break the lease. Such translations are very costly.”
So from what I'm to understand Edmund's denied their application before they even got a chance to decide whether or not they would pay the translation fee. Edmunds' decision was based around "[Your mother] appears to have limited English skills." which already suggests that Edmunds was already going to decline their application regardless of whether or not they paid for the translation. If that's the case then that's kind of a slam dunk for the family bringing up charges against Edmunds.
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Fight the good fight. Lyn wish the family good luck in this. O0