The Fortune Society will be paid $500,000 in a settlement.
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The Fortune Society has made what some would call a “fortune” from a housing discrimination lawsuit settlement this week with a $500,000 payout.
The nonprofit– which provides re-entry services for people who were incarcerated — sued the affordable housing company iAfford in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in late October 2022, claiming that the company discriminated against prospective renters for their criminal histories, thus disproportionately impacting Black and Latino applicants.
Housing developers hire iAfford to manage the application process for hundreds of city-subsidized housing units across more than 100 developments and 40 neighborhoods in NYC. The company currently lists 17 Bronx properties.
Recently known in the Bronx for the controversial Just Home proposal to house formerly homeless people released from Rikers Island on the Jacobi Medical Center campus, The Fortune Society supports the formerly incarcerated population through supportive housing and claimed the company’s missteps put a burden on the organization’s operations.
iAfford offered a settlement under Judge Pamela Chen on Aug. 1, which the nonprofit organization accepted on Monday. In the agreement, the housing company admits that certain actions violated fair housing and human rights laws, but does not admit liability or that the plaintiff suffered damages. iAfford agreed to pay the half million in damages and costs (including attorneys fees) to The Fortune Society, as well as take steps to ensure no further violations take place — such as training employees, adopting an anti-discrimination policy and appeal process, and submitting an annual report to The Fortune Society for four years detailing its efforts.
While landlords can run criminal background checks in New York City, they are supposed to assess each applicant on a…
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