Landlord told black renters that he had no apartments, but invited whites right in

In what appears to be a sting operation by New York’s Fair Housing Justice Center, a Bronx landlord has been caught red-handed discriminating against prospective black tenants.
is alleged that the landlord told African Americans who were looking for vacant apartments to rent, that his building had none – minutes after telling other white clients that there were some openings.
A lawsuit was filed after secret audio and video recordings were made by the undercover testers.
Federal law states that it is illegal to deny housing to anyone on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, country of origin, presence of children or disability. State and local laws afford even more protection to prospective tenants.
The Fair Housing Justice filed a federal lawsuit against J.J.A. Holding Corp., the company that they say lied to the black tenants who had been enquiring about two buildings in the Woodlawn area. They have evidence in the form recordings of the rental agent, Ray Brij-Raj, telling the candidates that there weren’t any vacancies after telling the white candidates that there actually were.
Executive director of the Fair Justice Center, Fred Freiberg, said, “Today, housing discrimination is like a revolving door where people are politely and courteously escorted in, out of, and ultimately away from the desired housing so there’s no way they would even know they’re being discriminated against.”
The Fair Justice Center is a nonprofit organization that employs testers to fight discrimination against prospective housing candidates.
The CEO of J.J.A., Patrick O’Connell and the rental manager, Brij-Raj, have not made any comments on the situation.
In the meantime, a few tenants of the company have voiced their doubts about the discrimination claim. Margaret Farrell, who has been renting from them for 30 years, said that she knew of at least on black family that resided in her building.
“How could he discriminate when they are living there? It’s a lot of nonsense,” she said.
Kelly, a white housing tester, said, “You don’t always know when you’re being discriminated against. There’s blatant discrimination. And then there’s very charming, cheerful, friendly discrimination and you don’t necessarily know it is happening.”
According to the lawsuit, J.J.A. owns at least five large buildings in the Bronx with a total of 200 units. The company doesn’t advertise available apartments and relies on referrals from their existing tenants.


Leviticus 20:
26 And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.

Deuteronomy 28:
44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.