Rejected Prospective Renter Scores $20K In Feds' Housing Discrimination Suit Settlement Over Landlord's Alleged Occupancy Policy That Family's Four Kids Were "Too Many" For 3-Bedroom Apt.

From the U.S. Department of Justice (Washington, D.C.):

• The Justice Department announced [] that Marcus Manly Magee III, Ina Magee, and their company, M.M. and S. Inc., have agreed to pay $27,000 to settle a lawsuit involving violations of the Fair Housing Act. The lawsuit alleged that the defendants established and implemented an occupancy policy at ­­23 rental properties in Magee, Miss., that differentiated between the maximum number of adults and children who could reside in each home.
  
  Under the consent order, which was approved [] by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, the defendants must pay $20,000 to a family that was harmed by defendants’ discriminatory practices and $7,000 to the United States as a civil penalty.
  
  In addition, the order prohibits the defendants from discriminating against families with children in the future, mandates a non-discriminatory occupancy policy of two persons per bedroom, and requires the defendants to receive training on the Fair Housing Act.

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• The lawsuit, filed in November 2011, arose as a result of a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). After HUD investigated the complaint, it issued a charge of discrimination and the matter was referred to the Justice Department.
  
  The lawsuit alleged that the defendants violated the Fair Housing Act by refusing to rent a three-bedroom home to a woman with four children because she had “too many children” under the defendants’ occupancy policy. The suit also alleged that by setting a lower maximum number of children than adults who could reside in each home, the defendants engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination or denied rights protected by the Fair Housing Act to a group of persons.

For the Justice Department press release, see Justice Department Settles Lawsuit Against Owners and Managers of Rental Homes in Mississippi for Discriminating Against Families with Children.

For the settlement agreement, see U.S. v. Magee, et al.