3/22/2018
The Justice Department today announced a settlement with two St. Louis landlords, Hezekiah and Jameseva Webb, to resolve a lawsuit alleging that they violated the Fair Housing Act by subjecting fifteen female tenants in their rental properties to sexual harassment over the course of two decades.
In October, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced the Sexual Harassment in Housing Initiative (SHHI). The initiative specifically seeks to increase the Department’s efforts to protect individuals from harassment by landlords, property managers, maintenance workers, security guards, and other employees and representatives of rental property owners. In 2017, the Justice Department recovered more than $1 million in damages for harassment victims. This is the first settlement announcement in 2018.
