Settlement Reached in Housing Bias Case
Chicago Tribune, Metro Section
By Pamela Appea
Niles—Federal officials on Wednesday announced the settlement of a housing discrimination charge against the owners and manager of a Niles apartment complex who refused to rent to families with children.
Housing and Urban Secretary Andrew Cuomo said that Irwin and Muriel Lippman, who owned the apartment complex at 7920 Caldwell Ave., agreed to pay $26,500 in damages to Nicole Donaldson and the Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern suburbs, which assists families with children to find suitable housing.
Donaldson, a single mother with a 3-year-old daughter, had sought to rent a one-bedroom apartment in the complex in October 1996 but was told that the unit was not available to families with children, according to Donaldson’s lawyer, Miriam N. Geraghty.
HUD said four tests at the apartment complex showed discrimination against families with children, which is prohibited by the Fair Housing Act.
Lippman and Siegel have sold the property and are no longer involved in the rental property business, according to the settlement.
Originally published in the Chicago Tribune on February 19, 1999.
